Broken Fang: A Second Chance
by Nightengale4698
Summary: A former lieutenant of the White Fang has lost something important to the group he once considered his family. Now, he has decided that they are too dangerous to be left to their own devices.
1. Chapter 1

_**Hello my lovelies, Nightengale here, and I just wanted to say, sorry for giving up so suddenly on my previous stories. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden, I lost the desire to continue those stories. This story is going to be an attempt at maybe revamping my "Broken Fang" story, because after rereading my story, I was extremely disappointed with what I called grammar and pacing I put into this story. So I am hoping that I can maybe make this story closer to what I had hoped it would be. This story will be different, different beginning, different pairings, all that good stuff. So, without further ado, here is the first chapter of "Broken Fang, A Second Chance"**_

As we slowly become aware of our surroundings, we are assaulted by the sounds and smells of a run down bar, windows barely lit by the waning light of twilight. We turn and find two men sitting in the darkest corner, one a large burly man, golden eyes constantly scanning the entire room, making sure that there are no obvious threats to be weary of. He quietly sighs and looks to his companion.

"Grun, look, it's extremely dangerous for _either_ of us to be out an about right now. You are supposed to be dead, and Adam is going to realize that I've defected any day now. Why would you call me out here at this Oum forsaken hour?" His friend doesn't say anything at first, quietly picking at the bandages that wrap up his forearms, contemplating his words slowly.

"Tukson," Grun finally croaks out, "You are my friend, and you have been my best lieutenant for years now, which is why I trust you enough to tell you this." Grun stops to down the last of his whiskey before continuing. "I'm going to take the White Fang apart."

Tukson is shocked at this, thinking his friend has gone insane, not hesitating to tell him so. "Grun have you lost your marbles?! You, better than anyone, know how far the Fang reaches across Remnant, and you think you can just dismantle them on your own?" Grun finally looks Tukson dead in the eye, his bright grass green eyes practically glowing in the darkness. "The Fang have let themselves become nothing more than a vindictive group of terrorists who's sole purpose is to wipe out humanity!" Grun growls at Tukson, the hair on his dark brown wolf ears standing straight. "You left the Fang because you don't believe in what they stand for anymore. They tried to KILL me because I verbally and actively went against their decisions to use m violent methods in their mission of 'equality'".

Tukson stares into his drink, before looking back up. "Grun, I'm not saying that you are wrong, that the Fang needs to be put down." Grun visibly calms down at his words, but he still watches Tukson, wondering if he made the wrong choice in talking to him about it. "I'm asking how you, a single Faunus, plans to physically accomplish this. No one knows for certain the exact number of active and Sleeper Fangs across Remnant, and the Council has worked damned hard to keep it that way. How do you plan on taking down a corrupted network nearly a century in the making?"

Grun finally relaxes a little, finally understanding his friends apprehension. "How does a King Tijitu hunt?" Tukson frowns and thinks before saying, "By distracting with one head while the second sneaks up from behind." Grun smiles and says, "Exactly, misdirection." Tukson's frown deepens, not understanding him. Grun sighs and says, "Ugh, now I remember why Arianna was made leader over you." He smiles at Tukson, while running a finger over the pair of ring hanging from a small chain around his neck.

Grun shakes his head, bringing himself out of his musing, "Look, don't worry about the details, just know I have a plan. I wanted to ask you if you have any information on current movements of White Fang troops, what are they planning, where are they going?" Tukson hesitates, but he eventually relents, writing down as much pertinent information he can think of in the notebook Grun passes him. Grun thanks him and stands up to leave, before Tukson reaches out to stop him, careful not to squeeze his arm too hard.

"Grun, for what it's worth, I AM sorry for what happened to Arianna. We may not have left on the best of terms, but she was still my friend, and my leader, and I'm sorry I couldn't have done anything to stop it." Grun reaches out and pats his hand, smiling at him. "Tukson, you have been my friend for longer than anyone else, I know if you had even had a hint of what was going to happen, you would have intervened. I don't blame you for what happened, and you have nothing to apologize for." Grun almost laughs at the tears of relief threatening to spill from his friends eyes.

"Listen Tukson, it's going to be getting real bad in Vale in the next week or so. I think it's best if you pack up and head back to Vacuo. It'll be safer there." Tukson looks worried, but he nods, agreeing with Grun's concerns. "Ya, I think I'll close up shop, I should be ready to leave by the end of the week."

Grun smiles at him, "By the way, I never would have pegged you as such a narcissist. 'Tukson's Book Trade'? Was naming a shop really that hard you had to use your own name for it?" Tukson glares at him, his cheeks glowing red, "Shut up Grun, you try coming up with a good name for a cover store on short notice." Grun just starts laughing before walking out of the bar, waving to his friend as he leaves.

As Grun walks to his hotel room, he is constantly watching his surrounding, his wolf ears constantly moving to any sound under the hood of his hoodie. As he enters the building, he nods to the clerk at the desk, one of the owner's kids, before walking up to his room. When he enters, he is met with the sight of his teammates, sitting around bed, smiling and waving at him, as if they didn't just spend hours in their leaders room after breaking into it. "Hey Boss!" Blitz says from the bed, while his wife and teammate Leere is sitting behind him, brushing out his long red hair. "We were starting to worry you weren't coming back!"

Grun sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Did you guys not get the hint that I wanted to do this alone when I left without telling anyone?" Blitz smiles widely as Leere starts braiding his hair. "Oh no, we got the hint, we just ignored it. We weren't going to let our leader up and try to take down his old organization by his lonesome,"

Grun shakes his head and looks at Macht before asking, "How in Seven Hells did you even find me?" Macht smiles and says, "We've been trained since the start of our careers to be the best damn Tracking Hunters of our generation. Did you really think you could hide from us?" To which Grun mumbles, "Since I was one doing the damned training, yes."

The other three just laugh and go back to what they were doing. Leere finishes up Blitz's hair, pecks him on the cheek and grabs Grun, dragging out onto the balcony. Blitz doesn't even bat an eye at it and starts checking his weapons, a pair of tonfa.

"Grun, why did you try to ditch us?" Leere asks her leader. Grun stays quiet a moment, but Leere doesn't push him, knowing he thinks things out before speaking about something important. "I have every expectation to die on this mission I'm setting out on, as well as racking up a body count that could border on attempted genocide. Do you really think I would ask you guys to follow me down such a dark path?"

Leere looks at Grun for a good minute before she reaches out and grabs hold of one of his human ears, giving it a good twist. "Do you really, honestly think we would want you to do this by yourself? We already lost one friend when Arianna died, and I'll be damned if we lose another because he didn't take back up." Grun is on his knees trying his best not to cry at having his ear twisted, "That's exactly why I didn't ask any of you to join me! Not a single one of you would hesitate to go with me! I'm not going to have my team's death on my conscience as well as my wife's!" Leere looks at Grun, close to crying after hearing his reasons.

Grun stands up and rubs his ear, "Leere, you guys are my friends, my family. I'm not going to ask you guys to put yourselves at risk just to help me with an extermination." Leere looked at him and grinned before she said, "Well it's a good thing you didn't ask, because we are CHOOSING to help you do what you need to do. You wouldn't hesitate to help any of us if we needed to do something near impossible, so how can we call ourselves your friends if we aren't willing to do they same? Now come on, we need to get some rest if we are going to get started tomorrow."

Leere smiles cheekily as she turns around and walks inside before flopping down on the bed beside Blitz, where he rolls over to cuddle against her, the two falling asleep almost immediately after. Grun shakes his head and walks in as well, saying to himself, "I couldn't have asked for better friends." Before he lays down, he frowns and says out loud, "I'm not losing my deposit on this place because of you guys, so I hope you can either fix or pay to fix the window ya'll broke to get in here."

 _ **Here it is everyone, my first chapter of my new take on "Broken Fang". I want to give a huge THANK YOU to my good friend, Nickshephard, for Beta reading this for me, and for helping me really put the right kind of effort into this story, the kind of effort it, and you all deserve. Just so you all know, I have, after extensive talks with Nick, decided to have my story take place within the same universe as his story "Rise of a Star Knight" a Jaune centric crossover with "The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings" elements to it, that I am proud to say I helped Beta for him, which honestly gace me the desire to write again. So, if you all like what I did so far, let me know, and Pop over to Nick's profile and check out his stories, you won't be disappointed. Until next time, this is Nightengale, signing off.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Authors note. Hello everyone here is the second chapter for "A Second Chance." I hope you all enjoy it. Once again I want to thank my good friend Nickshepherd for beta reading my work for me.**_

 _ **Two weeks later**_

Grun is currently trying to fight his way out of a large group of White Fang members, his clawed gauntlets tearing arms and legs from them, cleaving limbs as they tried their hardest to do the same to his team. Unfortunately for the Fang, his team worked together like a well oiled machine, each member watching the others back, not allowing a single moment of weakness for them to exploit. While Grun is proud of his team, he can't help but be frustrated with his partner, Blitz, who was the main reason for them being in their current situation in the first place.

"Blitz," Grun growls at him, "Can you possibly explain to me what part of this 'plan' of yours incorporated any form of stealth?!" Blitz shrugged, driving one of his Tonfa into the chest of some burly bastard that was trying to club his wife over the head. "Hell if I know boss," Blitz replied. "You know planning isn't my strong point. How was I supposed to know all these fuckers would want to start something?"

Grun sighs loudly while shooting out the claws of his weapons, the chains wrapping around some deer fellows neck, quickly snapping it before retracting, knocking another Fang's dagger into his partners shoulder as it swung past, returning to Grun's arms. "You literally kicked the door open and asked the entire crowd if they knew where Adam was. We have been non-stop destroying hideouts since we started, not to mention killing every Fanger we come across, and you think they would respond positively to us just showing up?"

Blitz responds with, "Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Grun yells back as he kills the last combatant, "What part of this situation 'Worked?!' Do you realize how much time we wasted taking care of this?!" Grun sighs in exasperation before walking over to a door marked 'Storage', using his semblance to crush the door flat, revealing several crates of high grade dust, being protected by a short teen dog Faunus, a simple revolver trembling in his hands. Grun looks at the boy, equal parts sadness and pity on his face.

"Young man," Grun say calmly to the boy, not wanting to scare him. "Listen, I know you won't want to believe me, but I don't want to hurt you. I'm only looking for information. You have been dragged into a war you have no business fighting in. You are far too young to die for a cause like this. You don't have to fight for all this stolen Dust, especially since I don't want it to begin with. Just put the gun down, and you have my word nothing will happen to you." The boy slowly lowers his gun, tears threatening to spill from his eyes, "please, I don't want to die. If my commander finds out I went down without a fight, he'll kill me."

"Don't worry, all I want are some answers, then I'll make sure no one suspects you of anything. What's your name, son?" "Ben". "Alright Ben, do you know where Adam is? He is supposed to have some info I need."

"Last I heard he gathered most of the White Fang in Vale and took them all up to Mount Glenn, along with most of the Dust we stole." Grun smiles at him and says, "Thank you Ben, you have been a tremendous help. Do you happen to know why Roman has been working with you guys?" Ben shakes his head. "No, all I know is that he's some kind of go-between between Adam and some woman." Grun grunts, "You wouldn't happen to know her name, would you?" Ben shakes his head again, "No, she always made sure we never knew her name, or even saw her. Roman just always called her 'Fire Bitch'".

Grun mumbles to himself, "Damn, never that easy." He looks up to Ben, smiling again. "Thank you so much Ben, you have been a great help. I'm going to let you go now, and I want you to promise me something. Leave the Fang, never associate with them again, go live your life. Because if we cross paths again, I will not be so compassionate." Ben nods, before turning away about to run away. Before he can though, Blitz sneaks up to him and uses his semblance over electricity to shock him, knocking him unconscious

"Thanks Blitz, I was hoping you would get him before he escaped." Blitz picks Ben up, shrugging as he says, "No problem boss, figured we should make sure he gets out safely. Same plan?" Grun nods, "Burn it all. I'll see if I find anything useful while you three set up the explosives." After the entire outpost had been set ablaze, team GMBL walked back to their borrowed bullhead, a stealth version, jet black and invisible to radar. Macht was carrying Ben over his shoulder, the boy still unconscious. On the way back to Vale, Leere and Blitz sat together, leaning on each other as they slept, while Grun went over the files he found there.

"So according to this, the Fang have moved over seven tons of Dust up to mountain Glenn, as well as different computer odds and ends. Odd, it's almost like they are building some huge…." Grun looks at his team, gently taking his reading glasses from his face. "A bomb…" Team GMBL all stiffen at the thought before Blitz asks, "That place is completely abandoned, what could they possibly hope a bomb is going to do? There isn't a living thing within a hundred miles of that place."

Leere tilts her head, trying to run theories through her mind. "Maybe they are testing different kinds of bombs up there? Like you said, there isn't any people up there for miles, unless they set off every speck of that dust at once, nobody would ever know they were up there, so they could be testing affects and stuff?"

Macht nodded, "It makes sense, but if they have that much Dust to spare on TESTING, how much do they have stockpiled? And more importantly, WHERE could they have it stockpiled?" Grun puts his glasses away and rubs his eyes, sighing as he says, "This mission gave us more questions than answers, maybe Tukson can help us make sense of all this. We'll drop Ben off with Junior and head over there, agreed?" Grun looks to his teammates, each of them nodding in agreement.

After an hour of flying, as well as a short detour to drop off Ben, GMBL finds themselves walking up to Tukson's book trade, but they stop at the door when Grun throws an arm out, the hair on his wolf ears standing on end. "Something's not right," he growls. "It's four in the afternoon and Tukson has his windows darkened. I don't like how this feels. Blitz, you and Macht, go round back, check for anything fishy, Leere and I will go in through the front." Both brothers nod before disappearing down the alley going behind Tukson's.

Leere and Grun slowly open the door, the cheery jingle of the bell overhead completely at odds with the oppressive feeling in the main lobby. Grun took a quick sniff, immediately picking up burnt Dust, scorched flesh and fresh blood. Panic fills Grun's heart as he shouts, "Tukson! Say something!" Leere looks behind the counter and shouts, "Grun! Over here" Grun leaps over the counter, landing next to a trembling teammate, clenching his fists upon seeing such a horrendous scene. On the floor laid Grun's ex-lieutenant, Tukson, a pool of his own blood slowly surrounding him, pouring from a large bullet hole in the left side of his chest. Grun crouches next to him, grabbing his wrist. Blitz and Macht burst in from the back room, stopping when they see Tukson.

Grun looks up to Leere, growling to her, "Tough bastards still alive, just unconscious. Leere, medic mode now! I'm not losing another friend!" Leere's golden eyes harden, nodding as she ties her long black hair back into a high tail, kneeling by Tukson. As she puts her hands on him, feeling out the flow of energy in his body, she quickly assesses the damage.

"Major damage to left chest cavity, large caliber Dust round passed completely through. Damn, if it gone just three inches to the right and it would have gone straight through his heart. Several cracked and shattered ribs, not caused by the gunshot. Shape and clustering of breaks indicate several hard strikes to ribcage after he was already on the ground, likely kicked by the assailant several times after the fight. Left lung has been punctured and he is drowning in his own blood." Grun nods, the cold analytical part of his mind barely keeping his emotional side in check.

"Return as much blood as you can to his body, try to reset as many ribs as you can, then help stimulate cell regeneration to close the wound, and we'll have to pray from there." Grun, Blitz and Macht step back, giving Leere enough room to work. Leere's eyes close as she taps into her semblance, Flow Control, and starts guiding as much of Tukson's blood back into his body as she can. As the color starts to return to his ashen face, Leere starts moving the slivers of ribs back to where they belong, before shooting a small bit of Aura around them, holding them in place until Tukson's own Aura heals them correctly, absorbing Leere's Aura into his own as it does. After nearly twenty, agonizing minutes of work, she finally sighs as her Semblance deactivates, a large scar over what used to be a large gaping wound.

Leere collapses back into Blitz's waiting arms, completely exhausted from such fine control over her Aura. Macht reaches into his pack, handing Blitz an energy bar, which Leere snatches and starts to devour. Grun kneels next to Tukson before reaching out and slapping him, waking him up and causing him to glare at Grun. "Damn it man, I take a bullet and your reaction is to slap the shit out of me?" Grub smiles down at his friend and says, "Maybe next time you'll be better about dodging the bullet. How you feeling, Tuk?"

Tukson growled out, "You know I hate that name. And I'm feeling alright, little sore and stiff, but fine." He turns to Leere and nods to her. "Thanks for the save, Leere, it never ceases to amaze me the kind of control you have over your semblance." Leere just nods to him, continuing to inhale her energy bar. Grun reaches down and pulls Tukson to his feet, asking him "The hell happened Tukson?" Tukson moves to sit on a nearby stool, Grun moving over to keep him steady.

"These two kids walked into my store. Looked like they coulda been first years at beacon. Seemed nice enough smile and talked to me. The boy, lanky looking kid with silver hair was standing at the door, pawing through the books." Tukson stops to laugh, before coughing. "With his silver hair, kid coulda passed for Ozpin's bastard child. The other one was doing most of the talking. Dark skinned girl, maybe five foot six. And her outfit definitely let you see enough skin to prove every inch of her skin is the same mocha shade. What happened to dressing like a responsible adult, Grun I ask you? Anyway, she had hair that was the brightest shade of green I've every seen on a human being, long enough to reach her ass and done up, or down I should say, into to twin tails at the base of her skull. She started asking me seemingly innocent enough questions, if I had this book or that book." At this Tukson's eyes squint, as if in pain or anger. "But then she asked if I had 'Third Crusade'" Once he heard this, Grun's fists tighten to the point of his fingernails drawing blood. "Fuck" he curses quietly.

Tukson nods next to him. "I know, I had hoped they wouldn't find me. But as soon as they asked I knew what it was that had set me on edge. I could see it in both their eyes. They were both killers. Killers who had no remorse over it, and they were here for me. I tried to fight back, but as soon as I jumped the counter after them, Silver head rears back and kicks at me, which launched some kind of Dust round at me from his heel. Next thing I remember is waking up to you slapping the shit out of me, those two nowhere to be seen."

Grun looks to his team and asks them, "Those descriptions sound familiar to any of you?" All three of them shake their heads, though all three of them shake their heads. After a second though, Blitz looks up and says, "Wait a sec boss, yes that does sound familiar." Grun looks to him, waiting for him to continue.

"The day before the Fang went after you, you told us about these three people Adam told you had approached him, asking him to have the Fang help them. You had told us Adam had said that two of them were younger, a dark skinned girl with green hair, and a lanky boy with silver hair. You couldn't remember what the third one looked like, but you were positive about those two."

"Why couldn't I remember telling that, or what they looked like?" Grun asks in frustration, before Macht puts a hand on his shoulder and answers him, "Boss, you were in the hospital for three days with a severe concussion and massive blood loss. It's a miracle your brain wasn't scrambled by the explosion, let alone being able to get back up from it." Grun only grunts in response, still upset over it. "Anyway, Tukson, we need you to look into something for us before you leave. We got info that the Fang has moved an ass-load of Dust up to Mountain Glenn, along with a bunch of bomb materials. Have you heard anything that suggests this isn't misinformation?"

Tukson rubs his chin before responding, "I see to remember my contact in the Fang telling me something along those lines, though the bomb parts are new to me. How'd you get this info anyway?" Grun shrugged before replying with, "Last outpost we took out had a kid guarding its Dust so we questioned him. Dropped him off with Junior after we got back." Tukson grins at Grun, before smugly saying, "Even though you are personally trying to destroy an entire organization, you still cant bring yourself to hurt a kid, huh?" Grun glares at Tukson and says, "First off, he got dragged into a war he has no business fighting in to begin with. And second off, eat a dick, Pussy Cat, as I recall, you tried to pull every last kid you could out of the Fang when you left, so you have no room to talk." Both men growl and square off with each other before they sighed and sat down, chuckling quietly.

"When did we get so old that teenagers are 'Kids' us, Boss?" Tukson said with a laugh. "Speak for yourself, Tuk." Grun replied as he pulled out a flask, taking a quick slug of the drink before passing it to Tukson. "Besides, you were born old. We live in a time where any shred of information you could ever want is at your finger tips with a Scroll, and you still prefer ink and paper."

Tukson snatches the flask before taking his own swig, countering with, "I am a connoisseur of how things used to be, when we would slow down and APPRECIATE what we were reading, not just tear through it like it was a race." Grun smiles wider and says, "Exactly, old." Tukson throws the flask at Grun, growling as Grun easily catches it without spilling a drop. "So," Grun says, turning serious, "We need to get you out of Vale, while those kids still think they killed you. How quick can you pack?"

Tukson tilts his head to the bag behind the counter and says, "Little bastards caught me as I was two seconds from walking out the door. Let me get some clean clothes, and we can be on the road in three minutes." Grun nods and turns to Macht, telling him "Bring the van around, we need to be burning rubber as soon as he's changed." Macht nods and walks to the door. "Leere, go with him, watch each others backs, they might still be watching the place." Leere follows Macht without saying a word. Two minutes go by, a newly dressed Tukson emerging from his back room. Grun grabs his bag as they hear a vehicle pull up out front.

Blitz opens the door, reveling a jet-black panel van, the side door held open by Leere. As Blitz and Grun hop in the side, Tukson takes the front, resting his sore back against the seat. Macht eases the van away from the store, looking every bit like a regular driver, trying to not draw attention to themselves. "So boss," Blitz starts off with, "Where's the next spot?" Grun pulls out a Dust cigarette, lighting it as he takes a drag, before responding, "Gotta get Tukson somewhere safe, maybe get him on a Bullhead to Menagerie. Then we have some business up at Mountain Glenn. Sound good to everyone?" His only responses are nods from Blitz, Leere and Tukson, followed by a grunt from Macht. Grun finishes his smoke before tossing out a window. "Alright, let's get out of here."


	3. Chapter 3

_**Hello everyone, Nightengale here. Just so there isn't confusion, I'm going to be taking a few liberties with the timeline here, since I have yet to see any actual dates shown in the show. So I'm going to have this chapter tale place about a week after the last one, because that is what my best estimation is that it would take GMBL to make sure Tukson is out of Vale and safe. Also, just so everyone knows, there is going to be descriptions of torture in this chapter, so if it bothers you, you might want to look away. Anyway, onward to the new chapter!**_

 _ **A week later**_

The roar of three military grade ATV's is heard before a wheel is seen slowly rolling to a halt. As the engines shut down, we look up to see team GMBL disembarking from three jet black, Dust powered ATVs, Grun and Macht riding individually, while Blitz and Leere share one. After collecting their weapons and supplies from the DAT-V's (Dust powered All-Terrain Vehicle) they cover all three with surrounding foliage, making sure no one can spot them easily.

"I still don't understand how no one can hear us pulling up on these monstrosities, boss", Blitz says as he places his dual Tonfa into their wrist holsters.

Grun sighs as he tightens his gauntlets, saying "How many times do we have to go over this Blitz? Macht cancels out the sound by sending out subsonic vibrations that match and nullifies the sound of the engines." Once he finishes checking his equipment, he watches his team, Leere securing her Sai in their hip holsters, while Macht attaches his Kukri Swords to magnet holsters on his back. When he gets nods from them they all start walking to their destination, Mountain Glenn.

Upon entering the city, they are met with the sight of desolation and ruin, every building, road and sidewalk utterly destroyed and left to rot. "I can see why the Fang would work all the way out here" Macht says. "No sane person would willingly spend any amount of time here."

Grun nods in agreement, "That's why we are leaving as soon as we finish the job." As he finishes speaking, he sees a lone Beowolf wander onto the street they are on. It doesn't seem to notice them, so Grun quickly signals to his team, and the four of them leap onto a nearby rooftop, out of its and any other potential Grimm's line of sight.

"Why didn't we just kill it, Boss?" Blitz asks. "Several reasons." He responds with. "One, we need every advantage we can get, and we won't be losing the element of surprise by fighting every Grimm we come across. And we would be fighting more than just the one if we started something, because there is NEVER just one Beowolf. Second, it would be a drain on our time, energy and resources that we don't need to waste."

Blitz nods in understanding, not angry with losing out on a fight, just curious as to his leaders reasoning. As the three hops from rooftop to rooftop before settling into a worn down office building, they hear the roar of a Bullhead entering the city's airspace.

Grun quickly grabs his binoculars and watches it hover at roof level, hoping it would be Fang members that can lead them to their base. Unfortunately, he sees four young girls and a tall lanky man hop out before it takes off. Upon inspecting the four colorfully dressed teenagers, he sees that they are all armed and ready for a fight. Looking at the man, he curses under his breath. "Shit, Beacon students and a teacher."

Grun hands the binoculars to Leere and talks to Blitz and Macht. "Ozpin must've sent a team up here for a training mission. And they have Oobleck with them." Grun sighs as Blitz asks him, "What's wrong with that? I always liked Oobleck."

Grun glares at him and says, "That's the problem, neither of you would know subtlety if someone smack you in the face with it. Things are fixing to get loud here and fast." Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, a loud gunshot rang out, followed by the howl several Beowolves. What followed was a quick, one sided slaughter of Grimm, the four teens making quick work of the horde. GMBL stayed back out of sight, watching to see how skilled they are.

"Fierce, but sloppy." Macht comments as he watches the blonde brawler. "She fights passionately, but she loses focus, giving in to bloodlust. She leaves herself open more than she attacks, it's a wonder she doesn't get overwhelmed."

Leere watches the small girl in red, "She's fast, almost inhumanely so. But her weapon is twice her size. She seems to be the leader, and she is good at leading, giving orders quickly and her team follows well. Extremely acrobatic, she uses the recoil of her weapon for propulsion, making her move even faster and hit harder. And her eyes..." Leere's own eyes widen in realization "They're silver. She must be that prodigy Ozpin told you about."

Blitz watches the white themed huntress. "Fencer, well taught, good reflexes. Fighting style is extremely stylized and predictable, though. She moves around the battlefield like it's a damned skating rink. Proficient use in Dust, looks almost as easy as breathing to her." Blitz stops when he sees the symbol on her back. "She's a Schnee. I thought all Schnees went to Atlas?"

Grun grunts, "I had heard the middle child, Weiss, went against Daddy's wishes and joined Beacon. After Winter, you'd think the man would treat his kids better, but…" Grun stops as his eyes fall on the last member of the team. The long black hair, the dark amber eyes, the weapon she used, it was unmistakable.

"Blake," Grun whispers. The rest of his team quickly looks to their leader, shock on their faces. "Blake?!" Leere whisper shouts. "Ghira and Kali's Daughter?! The fuck is she doing here? She's supposed to stay MILES away from anything Fang related."

Grun shakes his head, "Hold on, it might not be Fang related. Oobleck is the biggest history buff we know; maybe he's showing them Mountain Glenn to tell them about what happened. We can't make the assumption that we're here for the same reason."

Leere glares at him a moment but eventual relents, nodding. "You're right, it's probably unrelated. What do you want to do?" Grun watches Blake for a moment, seeing as she happily interacts with her team, laughing with them after the fight is over.

"We leave them be, for now. They'll never grow and learn if we try to do all their fighting for them. We won't get involved unless they get overwhelmed. We have our own mission." MBL nods in agreement before taking off running, leaping from roof to roof until they are out of sight. Grun steals one last look at Blake, watching as she openly smiles at the blonde girl's antics. He lets a small smile grace his lips before taking off after his team, looking for a place to set up camp.

 **Hours later**

As night finally falls, team GMBL are all huddled together, having lined their coats with small fire Dust crystals, a trick Blitz came up with to have a heat source without creating a fire that could give away their position.

Grun is eating an energy bar when his wolf ears perk up, having heard something his team couldn't hear. He lets out a quick, low hiss, his teammates quieting instantly. As Grun stalks toward the nearby window, he peeks down the side of the building. He sees two Faunus walking under the window, the white and black uniforms and stark white masks marking them as White Fang. Grun motions for the team, all of them collecting weapons before quietly stalking out of the building.

The four silently follow the two Fangers, hoping they would lead them to their base. Sure enough, the two grunts suddenly duck into a random single level house, before the sound of gears turning is heard. As the four run up to the door, they see a section of wall starting to close, prompting them to all take a running leap forward, all of them making through, though the wall almost closes on Macht, being the last to pass through.

All four circle up keeping a sharp eye and ear for any movement, but they quickly see that they are alone. They quickly follow the sound of receding footsteps, walking into a large open area just as the roof starts to crumble. Hiding behind some nearby pillars, they see the little girl from earlier fall down, before quickly being apprehended by the Fangers they were following. Grun sighs as he rubs his eyes, "Great," he grumbles "Trouble follows this girl like a damn dog. Alright, keep following, see where they take her."

Shortly after the interruption, the two grunts and their hostage are standing in front of a large train car, apparently waiting for something. "Why would they have a train all the way up here? The only set of tracks here would take them straight to…" Leere stops talking as realization hits.

Grun growls out, "Vale. That's what they needed all the bomb parts for; they are going to blow a hole right into the center of Vale." Before they can continue talking, they hear a voice come from the car, "Perry, what is it, I have had a heck of a day. Is it good news or bad news?" One of the grunts look to the girl and says, "It's a little girl." A few second later, Roman Torchwick sticks his head out of the car and says, "Oh that is very good news."

Blitz glares at Roman before he says, "Boss, if Roman is here, that ice cream psycho can't be far away. What are we gonna do?" Grun thinks a moment before saying, "We need to get information, and maybe we'll be able to stop the train as well. We capture Roman, hope we can subdue his partner, and disable the train. There is a room on the other side of the train, if we can get him in there, maybe Red can contact her team to take care of the train."

But before they can move, a shout rings out, drawing their attention to the rest of Red's team approaching Roman, led by…

"Is that a Corgi?" Macht asks incredulously. Blitz nods his head, hardly phased as he says, "Ya, didn't ya'll see it hop out of Red's bag earlier?" All three shake their heads no, before seeing Roman jump onto the train as it starts to move. "Fuck!" Grun shouts, "No time now, get Roman, leave the train to Oobleck!" GMBL breaks into a dead sprint towards the train, making it to the train before Roman spotted them.

Grun leapt first, catching Roman off guard, tripping him up before throwing him towards the room. Unfortunately, Roman collected himself quickly and started to fight against Leere and Macht, after the two caught up to him. He is holding them at bay, but it is obvious he is struggling. So he shouts out, "Neo! A little help!?" The sound of glass shattering is quickly followed by Grun catching a high heeled boot in his gut, launching him over Roman, before he rights himself and lands on his feet.

When he looks up, he's greeted by the sight of an extremely short woman, whose whole appearance is reminiscent of Neapolitan ice-cream, from her clothes, to her hair. She gives Grun a cute bow, her parasol gently resting against her shoulder as she smiles at him, a look of sweet innocence completely at odds with the power he just felt from the kick.

Grun growls as he extends the claws from his gauntlets, three eighteen inch serrated blades shooting out between knuckles on each hand. "Neo," he growls. "Your boss has info I need and you won't keep me from getting it." Neo only smiles wider as she straightens up, lifting her right hand up and curling her finger towards her palm; before waving her hand up and down, she almost like a paw batting at a toy.

"I'm a wolf," Grun yells at Neo, "Not a cat you fucking midget!" Neo frowns at being called such before she teleported right in front of Grun, driving her parasol towards his head. Grun knocks it away and swings at her with his opposite hand, his claws catching her necklace as it goes by, ripping them off. Neo looks down at the metal hanging from his claws, before looking up at Grun, a look of pure hatred and rage in her rapidly color changing eyes.

Before she has a chance to retaliate though, Blitz sneaks up behind her and jabs one of his Tonfa into her back, hitting her with as much electricity as he can muster, disrupting her concentration and knocking her unconscious, resulting in them being able to restrain her without her teleporting away. As the train is pulling away, they hear someone shout, "Grun?!" Grun looks back and is staring right into the eyes of Blake Belladonna, his older leaders daughter.

"What are you doing here?" As she is about to speak again, she sees that his teammates are still fighting Roman behind him. "Hold on," She shouts. "I'm coming to help!" Grun shouts before she can move though, "NO! You and your team have to stop that train! It's headed straight to Vale! We can handle Roman." Blake looks conflicted, but she nods before running along the train, it having pulled out completely and picking up speed.

As Grun turns his attention back to his team, he sees them finally subdue Roman, Leere knocking his cane away as Macht throws an elbow against his neck, rendering him unconscious. Grun uses several zip ties to bind Neo's hands and feet, before picking her up and carrying her to the room behind Neo, Macht simply grabbing Roman's leg and dragging him into the room as well.

After spending a few moments securing both Roman and Neo to chairs in the room, using special Dust infused Handcuffs to make sure they can't break free of them, as well as injecting them with special Aura suppressing medicine, to make sure Neo can't teleport away, they wake up both Neo and Roman by dumping water over their heads. Roman comes up sputtering and cursing, but Neo doesn't make a sound.

As Roman looks around, he finally sees who caught him. "Grun Gräuel, and here I thought you were dead." Grun smiles at him and shoots back, "And I thought you were a master thief, not some dumb muscle for hire. But, enough with the pleasantries, we're pressed for time."

Grun stands up, pointedly ignoring Roman's glare directed at him. As he stands in front of Roman, be crosses his arms and says, "I have questions, you have the answers I need. Answer my questions, and I will simply take you to the VPD and let them take care of you. Refuse to answer or lie to me, and I will hurt you in ways you never even thought were possible, then I will get the info from you. And afterwards, I'll tie you to my DAT-V and DRAG your sorry ass all the way back to Vale, and then throw you into the Vale PD…through a wall, for good measure."

Roman looked at Grun, completely unimpressed by his threats before saying, "Do you really think that you are the first person to try to break me for info? I can't begin to count how many times someone tried to strong arm information out of me. And each and every time, I sent them running with their tale between their legs." Roman smiled smugly at Grun, before sneaking a glance at Neo, though it didn't go unnoticed by Grun.

"Regardless, you WILL answer my questions. Who is in charge of this operation? How did they get the White Fang to follow them? What are they planning on doing? And finally, who ordered the hit on me and my family?"

Roman looks at Grun for a moment before laughing and saying, "What makes you think that there is anyone in charge above me? I got the Fang to help me by offering something even they couldn't refuse, money, a lot of money. We are simply trying to cause as much fear and chaos as possible to hide what we are doing, and as far as I know, your own LT., Adam was the one who ordered the hit."

Grun looks Roman in his eyes a moment before sighing tiredly. "I was so hoping you would be more cooperative and I wouldn't have to resort to this." Grun walks over towards Roman, his smug smile never leaving his face, until he walks passed him and stands in front of Neo, looking down at her dispassionately. "Hey," Roman shouts, "The hell are you doing? Neo has nothing to do with this."

Grun smiles as he reaches for Neo's arm, gripping it as he says, "Oh Roman, she has everything to do with this." Grun concentrates his semblance, Gravity Wells, pumping a small amount of his aura into Neo's left arm, centering two small spots on the back of her wrist and the middle of her triceps, forcing her arm straight up as it straightened itself out, before slowly pulling back against itself.

Neo's eyes are wide and her face is straining, obviously doing everything she can to fight the gravitational pull that forcing her arm into an unnatural position, but she can't get enough strength to her arm, the suppressant keeping her from pumping Aura into her muscles to strengthen them. Grun turns back to Roman and says, "She has about fifteen seconds before her elbow shatters. I can stop this, but you must give me the information I need." Roman doesn't say anything, he rears back and spits in Grun's face before shouting, "Leave her alone you sick fuck! Your beef is with me!"

Grun calmly wipes his face off before he looks back at Neo, snapping his fingers towards her, causing the gravity to ramp up, pulling her arm back instantly, snapping her elbow and forcing her wrist backwards, where it rests against her arms. Her face is twisted into a silent scream of pain, her eyes wide and white, begging Roman to make it stop. "I am going to ask you one last time, Roman." Grun walks up to Roman and grabs his chin in his fist, forcing him to look him in his eye as he speaks. "If you refuse to answer me again, I am going to walk over there, and do the exact same thing to her other arm, both her legs, and then I am going to shatter her spine. Then I will drag her out to the forest and throw her into a Borbatusk nest, and FORCE you to watch as she is helpless to defend herself as they rip her to shreds. Then I will put you through the same treatment, before throwing you in there so you can see her torn and broken corpse as they tear you apart." Roman feels his blood run cold as he hears all this, because the look in Grun's eyes tells him he is not bluffing in the slightest.

Roman looks at the floor and feels tears well up in his eyes. "Why are you doing this to her? She did nothing to deserve this." Grun places a hand on Roman's shoulder as he responds. "I know. It gives me no joy doing this, it is a disgusting practice. But, as I said, I NEED this information, and I will go to any lengths to obtain it. I saw how you were watching her. You care about her, like you've never cared about before. And we both know that men in our profession can shrug off almost any kind of physical pain. But emotional pain? Now that is something we just aren't able to ignore. Once we care about another, there is nothing we won't give to keep them safe. And if there is one thing I've learned, it's how to use that. Really, I should thank the White Fang, because they showed me just how much pain a man can feel with the pain and loss of a loved one. And if that pain or loss is a direct result of your own action or lack of action? It is multiplied exponentially." Grun stand up and walks over to Neo, who's eyes are red from the tears pouring down her face.

"Now," Grun says as he grabs her arm. "This will be the final time I ask you, who is in charge?" Grun squeezes her arms, causing her to looking to Roman, her eyes pleading to him. "Ok! Ok I'll tell you, just please stop hurting her." Grun nods as he walks away from Neo, crouching down as he pulls out a pen and a pad of paper. "Her name?" Roman grimaces as he spits out "Cinder Fall." Grun's eyes widen as he looks to Leere, who looks surprised, but other than that, she doesn't give off any other emotions. Grun nods as he looks back to Roman.

"Alright, how did Cinder get the Fang to fall in line with her?" Roman shook his head and said, "I don't know." Grun clicks his tongue as he rose to his feet. "I really thought we were past this." Grun starts walking back to Neo, the fear returning full force to her eyes. "Wait," Roman screams, "She never told me how she did it, I swear!" Grun stops walking but doesn't face Roman.

"All I heard was that her, Emerald and Mercury went there with money to try to convince the Fang. When that didn't work, they left, then came back and wiped the floor with everyone at the camp! I swear! That's all I know about it." Grun sighs as he turns around and walks back to Roman. "I believe you. So either she was hoping she could do it easily without fighting, and only fought after they refused. Or she COULDN'T fight the first time, and suddenly became strong enough to beat them all. But still begs the question, if she is so strong that she could bring the White Fang into line, why does she need them to begin with? Alright, what are Cinders plans? What's her end game?"

Roman thinks long and hard about this before answering. "I'm not sure." Grun raises an eyebrow, "But you have enough information to make a guess?" Roman nods before saying, "She keeps her plans close to the vest, compartmenting each specific group with a specific task, so that they can't see the whole picture. But I've caught enough gossip and second hand info to piece together; she intends to cause some kind of panic at Amity Coliseum. And she's going to use the Dust to do it."

Grun finishes writing all of this down, before asking his final question. "Who ordered the hit on me and my wife?" Roman shook his head, saying, "All I've heard was that the Albion Brothers had it out for some 'Traitor' who left the Fang." Grun growls after hearing this info. "Albion, damn Faunus supremist nutjobs. Alright, that should be all the info we need. Blitz, knock Roman out, Leere, fix Neo's arm, then knock her out too." Blitz and Leere both nod.

As Blitz uses his semblance to shock Roman unconscious, Leere walks to Neo and gently cradles her arm, prying it loose of itself and pouring Aura into her, coxing the bones to reset as they were, fixing torn muscles and ligaments back to the bones. After her last bone fragment is fixed, Leere moves away for Blitz to come over, but before he can, the sound of glass shattering fills the room.

In a split second, Neo is out of her chair and across the room, reaching for Roman. Blitz flares his Aura, creating a small dome of electricity around himself and the unconscious Roman, keeping Neo from reaching them. "Shit," Grun yells, "The suppresser must've burned through her system faster. Catch her!" Before they can move, however, glass shatters once more and Neo is gone, not a trace of her having been there. Everyone stays on guard a few moments, but when she doesn't attack, everyone relaxes. "She must've ran away." Macht says. "Think she abandoned him?"

Grun shakes his head, "No. She's probably going to wait until she can come back and bust him out of jail. Come one, we got what we came for. Let's go." As all four of them leave, heading back to their DAT-V's, Grun can't help but feel there is a piece of the puzzle they are missing. He loads Roman across the back of his vehicle and the three of them start heading back to Vale.

 _ **End AN: Well, here it is, Chapter 3. So far, I feel a lot better about this story. I'm going to cut this chapter off here so that I can dedicate the next one to "The Breach." Reviews, comments and such are always welcome to me. Again, I want to thank my good friend Nickshephard for beta Reading this story for me, and for letting me have my characters play around in his universe. Until next time, everyone, this is Nightengale, signing off.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Hey everybody, sorry for this chapter taking so long to get out, been having some personal stuff come up in the last couple of weeks. My daughter was in the hospital just after Christmas until New Years, turned out she had a real bad virus that she, thankfully, finally fought through and she's home and feeling just as ornery as she was ornery before the hospital. Lol.**_

 _ **However, my Papaw was hospitalized a few days after my daughter, he's been battling Parkinson's and Dementia for nearly five years now, but he ultimately lost to on the 8**_ _ **th**_ _ **of January, and will have been laid to rest by the time this chapter has come out.**_

 _ **I do apologize for this chapter taking so long, but hopefully you all understand that my family was far more important to me than this story. That being said, I am still going to give this story every bit of time and attention I can to make it the kind of story you all deserve. So, now that all the negative has been talked about, let's move on to the chapter that covers the "Breach" shall we? Once again, I want to thank my good friend Nickshephard for being my Beta reader for this story.**_

 **A few hours after we last saw team GMBL**

As the three DAT-Vs finally reach the city limits of Vale, we see that there is already a crowd running from a large pillar of smoke in the City Square. Grun quietly curses as he sees a large Beowolf about to jump onto a couple guarding their small child. Before the Beowolf lands, however, its skull is pierced by a pair of jagged, silver colored claws, followed by two lengths of dark black chain, that quickly saw through dark flesh and armored bone alike, separating the Grimm's head at its Jawline. As the body drops to the ground, lifeless, the remaining section of head is just barely alive enough to watch as the treads of a large combat boot come crashing down of top of it, scattering the remains as black ashes.

Grun looks over to see Leere already checking over the family for any injuries. Finding none, she points them to a nearby safe zone that other Huntsmen have set up. "Boss," Blitz says from his post on the top of a nearby building sign, looking around the city as far as he can, "There are Grimm just as concentrated by that pillar of smoke. Looks like a big damn hole that they are pouring out off." Blitz squints as something catches his eye. "Shit, that team from Mountain Glenn is right in the middle of it. Orders?"

Grun stops to quickly think out a plan. "We need to make sure Roman is secured, then we go and help the girls. We head to the nearest police station, or the nearest officers, whichever we find first." His three teammates nodded, Leere and Blitz pulling out there weapons, while Macht picks up Roman and slings him over his shoulder, before pulling out one of his Kukris. The four then set out down the road, Grun taking lead to watch for Grimm while Blitz and Leere surround Macht, to compensate for his single weapon.

After a few minutes of walking, they come across a group of Officers that have thrown together a barricade, in hopes of stopping the three Boarbatsuks that are trying to reach them. Seeing that they are distracted, the three able fighters jump into the group, each one crouching down to use the ranged versions of their respective weapons. Grun launched all four of his claws into the soft sides of his Boarbatusk, eviscerating it and killing it instantly.

Leere's twin Sais shifted, the three prongs dropping down to face perpendicular to the handles while moving more to the center, effectively making two short over under barrels for each Sai, the third prong shifting into the handles to act as triggers, while the handles themselves stretched, allowing more balance and control for her weapons. ( _ **I had them pictured as double barreled 50 caliber Desert Eagles.)**_ As the weapons finished shifting, Leere shot a round of both weapons, Fifty caliber Flechette rounds quickly tearing the under belly to pieces, killing the creature.

Blitz's Tonfa quickly shifted their handles back, exposing triggers where the handle met the cross bars. As he squeezed the triggers, he pumped the barrels with electricity, charging the Aluminum slugs as they entered the barrel and firing, turning his Tonfa into hand held Rail guns. As the molten slug pierced the skin of his Borbatusk, the charge stored within them released, electrocuting the Borbatusk as the still hot metal burned within it. As the final remains drifted away, they all turned to the officers.

"Everybody alright here?" Grun asks as he returns his gauntlets to their passive state, walking up to shake an officers hand. "Any injuries?" The officer shook his head before answering, "No, thankfully you guys got here before they reached us. Thanks you guys." Grun nodded to him and said, "I know this isn't the best time, but we have a prisoner with us we need to leave while we help clear all these Grimm." The officer smiles and says, "Sure, we can babysit someone for you. What's his name?"

Macht walks up and unceremoniously drops Roman on the ground. "Roman Torchwick." The officer looks at them in shock before asking, "You guys caught THE Roman Torchwick?! How'd you manage that?!"

Grun smiles to him before saying, "Long story, just take him into custody and we'll contact you later. Be safe out there." Grun nods to his team before they all take off, sprinting down the street before leaping to the rooftops, making a Beeline to the center of Vale to do what they can to help. As they reach the last rooftop, they see that a lone team of Huntresses is fighting a large group of Grimm.

Grun notices that an Ursa Major is about to attack the blonde girl from behind, so he launches a set of his claws towards it, slicing its arm clean off. Seeing that his claws have imbedded themselves in the ground, he uses them to pull himself through the air, quickly closing the distance between them. As the Blonde finally turns to look at the Ursa that almost hit her, Grun flies past, using his other claws to decapitate the creature, standing and yanking his claws from the ground.

"Who are you?" The blonde girl asks, looking upset that somebody just saved her. Grun glares at her before responding, "One, you're welcome. Two, it's considered polite to introduce yourself first. And three, there are more important things right now than introductions." The girl actually looks embarrassed, but before she can respond, Grun had already taken off, joining his team in taking down a King Tijitu that was trying to surround them.

Almost fifteen minutes go by before they hear a large explosion, followed shortly by a loud cheer that is rapidly approaching them. As Grun looks up, he sees a short ginger girl in a black jacket and a pink mini skirt, riding a giant metal War Hammer. As she is about to land, she twists and slams the end of her hammer into the head of the King Tijitu that GMBL was fighting. Another explosion rings out as its head disintegrates. As her feet touch down on the floor, she is surrounded by three other teens.

One is a skinny boy with long black hair, dressed in a long green tailcoat jacket and white slacks. He is standing next to the pink Ginger, holding a pair of green machine guns with long blades sticking out of the trigger guards. While he scanned the surrounding foes, his eyes kept glancing to the girl next to him.

On his other side was another redhead, though this one is much taller, and she is dressed like an Amazonian warrior, with a long golden spear and shield. The last person of their group was the one who really caught Grun's attention, though.

"Jaune?" Grun is dumbstruck, seeing that he has found not one, but two of his old friends, within hours of each other. Although it seems that Jaune hasn't seen him, as he and his team start tearing into the surrounding Grimm.

Shortly after Jaune and his team enter the fight, a Bullhead drops off _another_ team of huntsmen, the leader being a young woman wearing extremely fashionable clothing and carrying a large handbag. Said handbag opened up to reveal a very large minigun, that made fast work of the Nevermores that were flying overhead.

As the last Grimm was finally dispatched, the same blonde woman from earlier walks up to Grun and says, "Ok, introductions, my name is Yang, over there is my leader and little sister, Ruby." The young reaper looks over and waves meekly. "Over there is the resident Ice Queen, Weiss" "Hey!" the short white hair girl yelled indignantly. Yang ignored her, and continued, "And this is my partner-"

"Blake Belladonna," Grun finishes before Yang can. He smiles at her and opens his arms, easily catching Blake as she enveloped him into a hug. "Grun, I'm so happy you're ok. I heard about the explosion and thought you didn't make it out." Blake is barely keeping herself from crying as she holds him tightly. Grun is quietly murmuring to her, "It's ok Blake, I'm fine. I made it out…. mostly unhurt."

Before Yang can even process the sudden showing of emotions from her usually stoic partner, Jaune steps up as well and speaks quietly. "Grun? Is it really you?" Grun smiles back at him and says, "Yes, it's really me, Little Jaune." Jaune blushes madly before running up and punching Grun's shoulder, though there wasn't any force behind it.

"What the hell, Grun!? Blake gets a hug when you see her but you pick on me?!" Grun smiles cheekily and says, "What can you do? You know how emotional Baby Bell has always been." Jaune starts laughing as Blake is now blushing instead and currently beating her fists against his chest.

"Grun you asshole, you swore you wouldn't call me that again! I'm seventeen now!" Grun starts laughing with Jaune, making Blake turn away from him and pouting, doing her best to keep up her upset façade. But after another couple of seconds, she finally cracks a smile, relieved to see him again.

"Alright, that's it!" Yang yells out, "I've been patient long enough! First you save me from an Ursa like its no big deal, then your team starts tearing apart Grimm like it's child's play, now, not only do you seem to know my partner, but Vomit boy as well"

Grun looks over to Jaune and mouths "Vomit Boy?" to which Jaune mouths back "Don't ask".

Grun shrugs and turns back to Yang's tirade. " …You also actually get an emotional response from _her_! I've been her partner and friend for two semesters now, and all I've gotten from her is stoic and deadpan!" She finally looks Grun in the eyes, making him notice how they are shifting from violet to crimson. "Now tell me, WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!"

"Miss Xiao Long, you would do well to not be so disrespectful to Mister Gräuel." Everybody turns to see Ozpin and Goodwitch slowly walking down the street towards them. "He is the former second in command to the White Fang, when Master Ghira was still in charge, as well as one of my top former students." All of the teens, barring Blake and Jaune, turn to him, staring at him wide eyed. Grun smiles bitterly as he says, "I think recent events really enforce the 'Former' part of the first title, Headmaster."

Ozpin nods sadly to him, saying "My deepest condolences, Grun. Arianna was a great Huntress and an amazing woman. But, with what just happened, I must play the devil's advocate. What brings you to Vale, Grun? Last I had heard you were investigating the White Fang."

Grun nods over to the police officers that are shuffling Roman towards a prison truck. "Caught up with our buddy over there. He was originally going to be driving the train that crashed in Vale. My team and I had pulled him off the train, hoping it would stop it, but he must've had someone as a back up driver. We wound up fighting him and his number two, Neo, but we finally detained them both and had to interrogate them."

Ozpin nods in response, asking, "Did he have anything useful to say?" Grun nods as he pulls out a notebook from his pocket. Flipping open to the last page he reads off what he had. "According to Roman, a woman has taken over the White Fang by way of force. She is responsible for this Breach, and apparently she is planning some kind of attack on Amity Coliseum, but he wasn't sure about the exact details behind that plan. All he knows is that it involve whatever Dust left that wasn't detonated from here to Mountain Glenn."

Ozpin looks at Grun before asking, "Did he happen to give the name of his employer?" Grun stared right back as he said, "Unfortunately, no. He said that after their initial meeting, all of their communications were with third party grunts. The only name he gave me for her was, pardon the language," at this Blake and Jaune roll their eyes before he continues, "Fire Bitch."

The name caused Ruby, Blake and Jaune to snicker quietly. Ozpin nodded to Grun before smiling. "Thank you, Grun. I think you've earned a short break, don't you?" Grun frowned and said, "I'm no closer to finishing my mission than I was before I questioned Roman, how does that constitute a break?"

Ozpin shakes his head and says, "Mister Gräuel, you know I hate doing this, but as your commanding officer, I am ordering you to take a few days to rest. You have been running yourself ragged for months now, and you need to recover. You're no good to me if you die out in the field because you were too tired to survive a Beowolf."

Grun responds to Ozpin's reasoning with an exasperated sigh, but he relents, knowing that Ozpin is right. "Fine, I'll take two days to rest, it'll be nice to reconnect with old friends." Grun's smile turns sad at that. "Monty knows how short that list has gotten, these days."

Grun shakes his head and turns to the rest of GMBL, "Alright team, the next two days are yours to do with as you please. I'm going to be spending it with Blake and Jaune here. You're welcome to join us, or you're free to do your own thing. Either way, we meet back at the Bullhead Docks early morning on the third day. Everybody got that?"

Blitz and Leere are smiling widely, holding hands as they nod enthusiastically. "Good, now get out of here." As soon as he says this, Blitz scoops his wife up into his arms, carrying her bridal style as they rush to the nearest hotel, which is amazingly still standing.

Grun laughs quietly as he sees them disappear into the lobby, Leere already kissing her husbands neck, as the door slams shut. "I swear those two have some rabbit Faunus in them somewhere." He feels Macht walk up next to him, though he can see him shudder. "I love those two dearly, Boss, but please, I'd rather not think about what they are getting ready to do in that hotel room."

Grun smiles evilly at his teammate before saying, "I don't know what you're complaining about, I was the one who accidently walked in on them after their first 'Official' date night. And I'll be honest, I do not envy the cleaning crew management is going to have to call in a couple days." Grun turns to see Macht's face is green and he has his fingers in his ears, trying to block out Grun's voice. "And with that lovely visual, I have decided I need away from all three of you. I'll be at the bar trying to erase that particular memory, as well as the visual. Have fun catching up with the youngin's, Boss." As Macht sets off away from Grun, at a totally not dead sprint, Grun lets loose a loud belly laugh, remembering how much fun it was to tease his teammates when he got the chance.

As he turns to Blake and Jaune, he sees that their respective teammates are all having very different reactions to what he was saying. Weiss and Ruby are both blushing a brighter red than her cloak, though he can tell that Ruby's is from embarrassment while Weiss's is from anger and shock. Yang is wiping tears from her eyes from laughing so hard. Jaune and Blake are just shaking there heads, faces covered by the palms of their right hands, having long since gotten used to Grun's twisted sense of humor. The amazon is turned away, shoulders shaking as she is failing to keep herself from laughing, while her cheeks are shining an equally bright red. Lady Thor is actually rolling around on the ground, holding her stomach as she is laughing uncontrollably. Finally, the green ninja is as still and stoic as ever, though he can see the faintest smile on his lips.

"So!" Grun shouts out, "Now that I've gotten that out of my system, let's have a _PROPER_ introduction this time." Grun looks between Blake and Jaune, "Who wants to go first?" Jaune immediately steps forward, saying "Well, since I haven't had a chance for a cursory introduction yet, I'll go first." Jaune waves his team forward, each of them lining up next to each other.

"Starting at the end, we have Lie Ren, but everyone calls him Ren. He's our Aura specialist and team Medic." Grun faces Ren fully before giving him a straight-backed bow from his waist, bringing his body almost perpendicular to the ground, but keeping his eyes locked on Ren's. "Greetings, my name is Grun, Jaune's, for all intents and purposes, older brother. Thank you for helping him and watching out for him." As Grun straightens back up, Ren has mirrored his earlier bow, though his eyes are wide. "I'm happy to say that Jaune is a good friend, and a great leader for our team."

"Next to him," Jaune continues, "Is Nora Valkyrie. She is the team's heavy hitter." Grun smiles at where she was, but she is already standing right in front of him, her head barely reaching his chest. "Hi!" she yells excitedly. "Like Jaune-Jaune said, I'm Nora! I like sloths, Ren, Pancakes, fighting Grimm, Ren, My team, Rock and Roll, and Ren. Are your ears real? They look real. Are they as soft as they look? Can I pet them? I've thought of Jaune as the big brother I never had, does that make you my bigger big brother too?" Ren is about to pull her away, Grun laughs and starts petting the top of Nora's head. "It's nice to meet you Nora, yes they are, I've been told they are incredibly soft, yes you may, and I don't see why not. Do I need to lean down, or…?" Before he can finish he finds Nora has already sat down on his shoulders and is running her hands gently over Grun's wolf ears, and squealing over how soft and fluffy they are.

He turns back to Jaune, acting like there isn't a seventeen-year-old girl sitting on his shoulders. He nods his head for Jaune to finish the introductions. "And finally, we have my partner, Pyrrha Nikos." Pyrrha waves with a polite "Hello" as she smiles at Nora trying to rub her cheeks against Grun's ears. "You seem to take Nora's exuberance in stride." Grun looks up at Nora, seeing that she has undone his ponytail and is working on putting his hair in small braids, "This? This isn't exuberance. The orphanage I grew up in had kids that'd make Nora look like she was lethargic in comparison. I find it refreshing to see people with so much energy these days." Pyrrha's smile turns a little sad at that. Jaune finishes up by saying "We make up team JNPR." Grun reaches up and plucks Nora off of his shoulders, much to her disappointment. He gathers up the braids she made and ties his hair back up in a tail, not bothering to undo the braids. He turns to Blake and smiles, "So how about your team?"

Blake smiles and turns to her teammates, pointing to Yang. "This is Yang Xiao Long," she starts off with, "She's my partner, and my friend, though I'm loathe to admit the last part." Yang grips her chest in mock pain, "Blakey, how could you hurt me so?" Blake pointedly ignores her and turns to Ruby. "This is Ruby Rose, my team leader, and sister to Yang." Ruby is still blushing furiously but she extends a hand to meekly shake his hand, "I-it's nice to meet you, mister Gräuel." "Please," he interrupts, "Call me Grun. Mister Gräuel makes me feel even older than I am." Ruby giggles and says, " Ok, Grun" Grun finally faces the finally member. "And this is Weiss Schnee, Ruby's partner and our Dust specialist." Weiss glares at Grun before shouting, "How could you just talk about something so private with such a flippant attitude?!" Grun is honestly confused for a moment before he remembers what she means. "You mean the sex?" Weiss's eyes widen before her cheeks get darker. "You're talking about Blitz and Leere having sex, right?" Weiss remains silent though she looks like she is about to have a coronary. "Its just sex, Kid. Nothing to be offended or ashamed by. People have it, people do it, its as simple as that." Grun turns to Blake, a wide grin slipping onto his face as Blake just shakes her head. "Anyway," Blake says, "We make up team RWBY."

Grun turns to look at Jaune. "So, leader?" he asks, "You volunteered to lead?" Jaune shook his head before saying, "No, Ozpin decided to make me leader, though I don't know exactly why." Before Jaune knows what happened, Grun has brought his fist down on top of Jaune's head, hard. He almost brought him down with the force of the punch. "What have I told you about talking down on yourself? You have the mind of a master tactician in that unruly mop you call a head! Hell's bells boy, you were beating your grandfather at chess by the time you were Five, for Oum's sake, and HE was always said to be the greatest strategist of HIS generation."

Jaune shakes his head, "But how am I leader material? I'm not qualified to lead" Jaune stops talking when he sees a black ring of Aura surround Grun's hand, his fingers creaking as he squeezes his fists. "If you say one more bad word about yourself, I swear I will crank my Semblance up to 10, and give you another knock, am I clear?" Jaune's eyes go comically wide and nods his head fast enough to actually pop several joints in his neck.

Grun then relaxes his hands as he calms himself down. "Listen, Ozpin saw something in you that you have almost steadfastly refused to see in yourself. Potential. You could become one of the greatest warriors Remnant has ever seen, if you would just let yourself believe it and not second-guess yourself all the time. Do you really think I felt ready to lead when I came to Beacon?" He waited to see Jaune's response, Jaune shook his head as a reply.

"Hell no," Grun said, "as soon as that announcement was made, I actually passed out from the shock. My new team had to physically carry me to our new dorm. Not the best first impression, I have to say." Jaune is smiling as Grun tells this, not wanting to interrupt the man he had so much respect for. Grun continued to say, "I had to work _my ass off_ , night and day, working out strengths, weaknesses, fighting styles, everything. I was a mess, constantly worrying that I wasn't good enough, that I wouldn't have their respect. But then, Blitz of all people sat down and talked with me, because he was my partner and he saw how tore up I was. He said, 'Boss, you have got to relax. How can you expect to lead us if you run yourself into the ground?' "

"I was flabbergasted, how could this guy be so ready to accept me as leader, knowing I haven't done anything to prove I should be? So I asked him, and his answer was what really cleared my head for me. He said, 'It's called faith, Boss.' I didn't respond at first, so he continued, 'You gotta remember, Ozpin has been the Headmaster here for longer than most of us have been alive. And I doubt he got his position by making stupid decisions. So, if a man who hasn't known you more than a week could put enough faith in you to make you leader, he must have seen something to convince him you would make a great leader. So why can't you believe that it is in there, you just have to let it out?"

"I still wasn't all that convinced and asked him, 'What if he's wrong? What if what he thought was there isn't there and I wind up getting you all killed?' He laughed at me when I asked that. "Grun, we are all Huntsmen in training, there are bound to be bumps in the road and hiccups, but that doesn't make you responsible for every single one. All we hope for is a leader who can admit his faults and work to better them. There is no such thing as perfect, Boss, and trying to attain it is a pointless venture. Just strive to be the best YOU can be, that's all we ask of you."

Grun looks into Jaune's eyes, waiting as the light of realization sparks in his eyes. "Now, I think its time we get out of here. Know anywhere we can go to relax?" Yang steps up and says, "We could go to Juniors" Grun looks at her with a deadpan expression and says, "They loudest Club in Vale is your idea of a place to relax? And is Ruby even old enough to go in someplace like that?" Yang just starts laughing as she says, "Oh please, after the last time I was there, I doubt Junior would try to keep my friends out."

Grun looks at her confused, "What's that supposed to mean?" Before she can respond though, Grun's eyes widen, "Wait, I knew I heard your name before, you're the girl who wrecked Junior's club a few months back." Yang smiles proudly for a moment before she feels the twin points of his claws against her neck. She glares at Grun and asks, "The hell is this about?" He responds by spitting by her feet, "You trashed his place because he wouldn't do business with you. Just because you didn't want to PAY for the info he may or may not have had, you thought you were justified in tearing down his place of business. Well guess what, Hei Xiong is a good friend of mine, and I don't take kindly to people fucking with my friends." Yang doesn't speak, she simply uses her gauntlets to push his claws away.

"He is a criminal, and why should I feel bad for punishing a criminal?" Grun growls at her before activating his other set of claws. "So what crime, specifically were you 'punishing' him for?"

"All of them" Grun looks to Blake and Jaune as he says, "Keep your teams out of this. This _child_ has stepped well out of line, thinking she is justified because she is 'in the right'. Her arrogance disgusts me, and I am going show her the error of her ways," Jaune stares at him a moment before saying, "Whatever you think is right, Grun." He turns to his team and says, "This fight is between Grun and Yang. We are not to interfere unless it goes too far." Grun can see that the three are struggling with wanting to help a friend and wanting to listen to their leader, but eventually Jaune's words win out.

As he looks to Blake he can see that Blake is in agreement, looking ashamed that her partner would go so far. Weiss however is standing with sword in hand, pointing it at Grun. "What makes you think that I will let you hurt my teammate?!" Grun looks her dead in the eye and says, "Because her treatment of Junior is no different than the White Fang's treatment of the Schnee Dust Company." Weiss's eyes widen but she grips her sword tighter, "What the hell are you talking about?!"

Grun sighs sadly, hating to have to talk so badly about someone he doesn't know. "She attacked a man simply because he wouldn't do business with her the way she wanted him to do business. She then says she was justified in her actions because he was accused of crimes in his past, thinking that because he did bad things before he and his nieces deserves everything that happened to them because of their dark past. How is that any different then the way The Fang claim their justification on all of Humanity for the crimes of the few?"

He can see the pain in her eyes as she puts her blade away. "Very well, but if I even SUSPECT you are going to go too far, I will intervene." Grun nods to her, "I give you my word, there will be no permanent or lasting damage." He turns to Ruby last, Yang's leader and more importantly, her sister. "Do you intend to stop me?" Ruby slowly shakes her head, tears in her eyes. "No…she is in the wrong for all of the damage that she caused." Grun nods to her, "I know it hurts little one, seeing how people can do bad things for what they think are good reasons. I've seen many of my family in The Fang following that path for a long time now."

"You know," Yang interrupts, "You are talking like you even have a chance of taking me." She swings her arms, activating the weapons on her wrists. Grun looks to her before removing his own gauntlets and handing them to Blake, who is seen clearly struggling with them before setting them on the ground, visibly shaking from holding them.

Yang raises an eyebrow, "You must think you are Billy badass, wanting to fight me without your weapons." Grun shakes his arms and pops his neck before responding, "There are two kinds of enemies that I fight with my blades; those I wish to kill, and those I respect. Seeing as I have no desire to kill you, and absolutely no respect for you for abusing your position as a Huntress-in-training, I will only beat you into submission."

Yang gets extremely angry at this, hair and eyes glowing as she flies forward, rearing her arm back to swing. Before she has a chance to punch, though, Grun has leapt as well, meeting her at the crest of her arc, before throwing his own punch, catching her in the stomach and launching her into the ground. As she stands up, coughing, she sees Grun standing next to her, looking down at her in disgust.

"People like you make me sick. Thinking that just because you have strength, that no one can touch you." He slowly walks around her, watching as she tracks his path. "You think that just because you want something, it should be handed to you on a silver platter."

"I was trying to find my mother!" Yang flies at him again, only for him to catch her fist and spin her around, kicking out her legs as he spins and axe kicks her back to the ground, his boot landing between her breasts.

"Boo-hoo, you don't know where your mommy is? Join the club. I grew up in an orphanage until Ghira took me in. Tell me, you were so focused on your mother, did you stop to think about your father? Or your sister, for that matter?!" He gestures over to Ruby, who is openly weeping at the fight. "What do you think would happen to her if her sister was arrested, or even killed in that bar?"

Yang stares back at Grun before spitting out, "Please, killed? Junior and the twins barely made me sweat" She stops talking when she sees the cold, blank stare he turns back to her. "And if I had been there? Think about it, Hei is one of my closest friends, and if I had been there I wouldn't know you from Adam. You'd just be some punk to me trying to cause trouble. I could've easily and justifiably held you captive until the police arrived to take away the UNDERAGE DRUNK who tried to start a fight in a legitimate place of business. And as for you thinking that would be impossible remember, in just two hits, I have immobilized you, and that is without my weapons, or even fighting seriously." Gurn says as he waves his hands as a means of proving that he did it without his claws.

"And before you try to justify it with the whole 'criminal' spiel you tried to use, Hei hasn't been apart of any crimes since he opened those doors. He works in information and bodyguard work. The ONLY reason that he leant his men to Roman is because Roman threatened to KILL his nieces if he didn't. I know he has gone clean because that was the deal we made for him to open that place. I had convinced his father to sell him the place, on the condition that if I even suspected he fell back to the old ways, all his property and assets were forfeit and to be returned to his father, then after his father passed, to me. So believe me when I say, you threatened and attacked an INNOCENT man because you didn't want to do business his way." Yang didn't give him any sign that she believed him, so he continued.

"Tell me, did you even OFFER to pay him for the information you thought he had? Or did you go straight to threats and intimidation?" Yang actually blushed and looked away from him. Grun snorts, "That's what I thought."

Grun lifts his boot off of Yang as he walks over and retrieves his weapons. "Hei is a business man, his job is to trade info for money. If you had actually stopped to think instead of immediately attacking, you would have seen he was playing hardball to gauge how much the info you wanted was worth before haggling. Simple and LEAGLE way of trying to up his profit."

Grun stops to put his claws back on his arms, tightening the straps on his forearms. "I am willing to let this go, because in all honesty, all Hei and the twins suffered was some money for repairs and bruised prides. However, you WILL pay for the damages you caused, because it isn't exactly fair for them to suffer because of your temper. Is that understood?" Yang stands up and nods slowly, looking winded but mostly unharmed. Grun turns fully to her and smiles widely,

"Good, then I forgive you." Yang looks at him, not believing what he said. "Seriously, that quickly?" Grun raises an eyebrow and says, "What? You think because I wanted to punish you that I would hold a grudge? Please, as long as you pay what you owe, and apologize, we have no beef, since it's between you and Hei. I was only making sure you understood the situation. Now!"

Grun claps his hands as he turns to the rest of the teams, missing Yang's blush as she looks at his back, "We still need to relax, and I am hungry after that warm up. I'm thinking noodles, surely the old man still has that noodle stand nearby," Jaune nods as he starts leading his friends away. "Ya, it's just around the corner, actually."

JNPR and Grun head to the stall as RWB walks over to Yang. "Yang," Ruby whispers, "Are you ok?" Yang snaps out of her stupor and turns to her team. "Ok? That guy just took me down with barely any effort. He had me dead to rights and he stopped to teach me a lesson. I can count the number of guys who fought me equally on one hand. And none of them ever _beat_ me. He completely wiped the floor with me."

Yang turns to Blake and says, "I need you to tell me everything you can about him. I think I'm in love" Blake shakes her head as she turns to follow JNPR. "I refuse to help you perve on the man who is essentially my big brother. Besides, he just lost his wife a couple months ago. I highly doubt that he is even considering looking for a relationship." Yang walks up to her and wraps an arm around her partner's shoulders, "I'm willing to wait. I have never met a man willing to go so far for his friends. He obviously cares about his family, his team, Jaune, you. Those are both major plusses in my book." Yang's eyes take on a darker gleam as she says, "Plus, did you see the _arms_ on him? The looked like someone packed condoms full of walnuts." Yang almost growled the last part as she wiped her mouth clean.

"Alright, with that _lovely_ image in my head, the answer is still no." Blake says, "If you wanna know about him, you ask him. I want no part of it."

The two keep bickering back and forth about Grun as Weiss and Ruby follow right behind them, "Can you believe that Yang is actually interested in that _Cad?_ The man has no morals and a filthy mouth."

Ruby is skipping next to her, eating some cookies she 'procured'. "Honestly, I'm not that shocked. She always respected strength. Plus, with how much Dad worked to keep us happy and safe, it's no surprise that she looks for someone who values his loved ones above all else."

The four of them turn the corner to see Grun up ending a bowl almost twice the size of his head as he drained the last of the broth, before setting it down and belching loudly, patting his stomach as he looks to RWBY, "Oh, hey girls, we were wondering **Weiss** you four were taking **Xiao-Long** to get here." Grun smiles shamelessly as seven sets of hands smacked faces. Blake and Jaune both said, "Oh god, I forgot about the puns, again."

Weiss, Ruby, Nora and Pyrrha all said, "Oh sweet Oum, another one." Nora is laughing loudly at the pun, but the only one still looking forward is Yang, her lilac eyes burning with want as she growls, "Oh that clinches it, he is mine, and I am going to have him, no matter what I have to do." Grun is too occupied watching everyone's reactions to hear what Yang says. "Wow, I almost forgot how much fun pun induced disgust was to cause." He keeps laughing as Jaune and Blake both reach over to slap Grun on the head.

 _ **Post story AN. Hey everyone, Nightengale here. First off, I am SO sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out, I have had personal stuff come up, but in all honesty, the majority of the time it took to write this was simply me being lazy. But, hopefully I can keep my writing juices flowing and keep this story going. As always, thank you everyone who is reading this story and I hope that you all continue to enjoy my work. This is Nightengale, signing off.**_ _ **(P.S. The rounds Leere's weapons are using are just a larger caliber of a very real round called the R.I.P round. I'm not making that up, you can find it online. It is very real, and it is terrifying.)**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Hello everyone, Nightengale here. Well here it is, the next chapter for Broken Fang. I know, it took quite a while for this one to get out. And I want to apologize for that. I do hope to be better about getting chapters put out for this, and I'll do my best to make them the best they can be. Now, fair warning, this chapter is mostly dialogue, which I admit is not my strong suit. It's also mostly exposition and character connecting. But I can honestly say I'm proud of how this chapter came out. So, without further ado, here is the next chapter. I want to thank my good friend Nickshephard for Beta reading this for me.**_

We find Grun, RWBY and JNPR sitting at the counter of "A Simple Wok" having long finished their food. Jaune is sitting to Grun's right, with his team sitting by him, while Blake sat to his left, her team by her side, though Yang is trying to get Blake to switch seats with her.

"So the curator turns towards the artist" Grun continues his story, "And says to him, 'Sir'" Grun switches to a snooty posh voice, "'We commissioned you to paint what you thought portrayed the final thoughts of General Legume at Fort Castle, how can you believe that a portrait showing a large pile of manure with a golden halo, as well as 30 Faunus fornicating in a large pile shows his final thoughts?'" Grun switches back to his normal voice after taking a sip of his drink.

"Well isn't it obvious, sir? The General's final thoughts were 'Holy Shit, where did all these fucking Faunus come from?!'" Most of the friends there started laughing uncontrollably, although Weiss and Ruby were only blushing, although each for very different reasons.

Weiss decides she can't stay quiet, as she finally bursts out with, "What in Oum's name is wrong with you?!" Her face is as red as a strawberry as she glares at Grun. "Why would you tell such a disgusting, as you claim, joke to us?!"

Grun looks to her, raising an eyebrow, "Ice princess, that joke was _tame_ compared to some of the other jokes I know. And I was just trying to break the ice with ya'll, help you relax around the old geezer. And there are very few jokes that can make people, especially teenagers, laugh like that quite like bodily function humor."

Grun starts to grin wickedly, "If you want to hear a _really_ raunchy one, I can tell you about the guy who woke up after a bender with different colored rings around his D"

"Whoa! Ok that's enough of that!" Yang leans over to cover Grun's mouth, not wanting for Ruby to hear a joke like that. She quickly pulls her hand away though, seeing Grun raise an eyebrow at her. She is blushing, realizing she just had her hand over her current infatuation's mouth.

"A-anyway," Yang stutters out, "How about we move on from the jokes? I want to hear about how you came to know both our resident kitty cat," Blake hisses at Yang at this comment. Yang keeps going, ignoring her, "And Vomit Boy over here,"

Grun looks over to Jaune, "Alright, what's with the Vomit boy thing?" Jaune blushes. He coughs before he says, "I, um, I got motion sickness on the ride here and wound up puking on one of Yang's shoes. She never forgave me for it."

Grun nodded his head and said, "I can't say that I blame her. You know how expensive a decent pair of boots are?" Jaune stares at Grun in shock, not believing that Grun would take her side. Yang catches Grun's eye as she smiles at him. He winks at her before starting to laugh at Jaune, not noticing the blush now dusting Yang's cheeks.

"Calm down, Jaune," Grun says, "I was just yanking your chain." Jaune tries to glare at Grun, but finds his laugh infectious and starts laughing with him. "Alright, alright, that was funny." Jaune says to Grun.

"So," Yang interjects after getting her blush under control, "With that bit of info out now, will you tell us what we want to know?"

Grun stares into Yang's eyes, before nodding and saying, "Alright, but it's a pretty long story. So ya'll best settle in." He looks to Jaune and Blake, both nodding to him.

"Very well. I grew up in a government run orphanage on the outskirts of Menagerie. The people in charge did everything they could to maximize the profits they could skim from the stipends they received for us."

Grun paused to take a sip of his drink before continuing. "Single articles of clothing, time regulated weekly bathing, soup thinned to damn near water, any corner they could cut, they didn't hesitate to cut them." Everyone present was wearing a look of shock and/or disgust on their faces, except for Jaune and Blake, who already knew the story.

Grun continued, "They would actively try to keep us from getting adopted, not wanting to lose either the stipend they received or the child labor they could get out of us. Days spent making clothing for them to sell, nights spent huddling around the single vent in our room, hoping to get some heat. I was extremely unlucky, because for some reason my Aura was unlocked and I already had a grasp of what my semblance was."

"So the people in charge didn't hesitate to have me doing the real dangerous work. Roof leaks, send Grun. Boiler's acting up, send Grun. Beowolf getting too close to building, send Grun and pray a Huntsman get there while it's eating him. But even at such a young age, I could still fight."

Grun smiles darkly as he thinks of those days, "Imagine the look of shock on their faces when the kid they threw outside as a meat shield seemingly crushed the Beowolf with nothing but his bare hands. That first time I came back, soaked in sweat and blood, the director decided I earned something."

Grun swirled his drink in his glass before continuing. "The director was a staunch hater of the Faunus. Weird that he would want to work on an island populated almost exclusively by Faunus, but I eventually came to find out he was a shamed relative to some important politician."

"Something about he was military and openly refused to work with ANYONE he suspected tolerated Faunus. Aggressive towards Faunus peers, insubordinate towards Faunus superiors, until eventually he was court martialed, but the relative didn't want to let everyone know. So he told him to go to Menagerie, whatever government job that would put him around Faunus, to hopefully temper his hatred, or at least help him learn to hide it better."

Grun let out a chuckle as he said, "Fat lot of good that did, his hatred got even WORSE, living to torture Faunus children. Anyway, he thought that a Faunus so young to have such a powerful Semblance was 'ungodly and an affront to his God', so he gave me a fitting last name."

Grun drains the rest of his drink and sighs, "'Gräuel', is Atlasian for 'Abomination'. Every single child at that place were denied having a last name until they were adopted, another way to demoralize the Faunus. But he gave me that name to make sure I remember my place."

"After I turned ten, or at least what my best estimation of my tenth birthday, I finally worked up the nerve to leave that damned place." Grun grins as he remembers that night.

"I snuck into the directors office and got into his safe. Dumbass thought I was too stupid to see him put his code in while I was cleaning in there one day. Grabbed everything I could carry in my bag, must've been a couple of thousand in Lien. After I got the few possessions I had together, I hightailed it out of there."

Blake reaches over and holds his hand, making him look to her and smile. "I was homeless for a couple of months, sleeping in what cover I could find, stealing after I used up the cash I took."

Pyrrha piped up at this point, "Wait, you wasted several thousand Lien in just a few months?" Grun looked at her and said, "Menagerie could get unbelievably cold at night, and I was far from the only homeless Faunus there, kid. Whatever Lien I didn't dedicate to the few scraps of food to keep me going, I spent on clothes for other Faunus so the elements didn't kill them."

Pyrrha blushed and looked ashamed after he said that, "Sorry" she mumbled. Grun waved her off, "No harm done. Anyway, I was breaking into this big old house right in the center of town, thinking they must have something to steal."

Blake scoffs quietly at this, but she is still smiling. Grun smiles right along with her, "And wouldn't you know it, I run right into Ghira Belladonna, leader of the White Fang."

RWY and NPR look at Blake in total shock, "Wait, your DAD was the leader of the White Fang?!" Yang yells out. "What did you think I meant when I told you I was 'born into it'?" Blake said cheekily.

"Anyway," Grun says, getting the story back on track, "Ghira finds me trying to fit an expensive 'crystal' vase in a bag. Picks me up and just stares in my eyes and asks, 'Boy, what are you doing in my house?' Of course, my tongue takes off without asking me first and I say back, 'Oh I'm sorry; I thought this was MY house. If you set me down I'll just be on my way.'"

Yang starts laughing at Grun's attitude, but he keeps going, "Understandably, Ghira didn't really see the humor behind that and started carrying me to his office, setting down me in a chair before locking the door. He pulls a chair in front of me and sits across from me, before he starts talking."

"'Boy, I don't know who you are, and quite frankly I don't care. You broke into my house and tried to steal from me. Honestly, I could kill you and not much would be done about it, since I am the one in charge of this city."

"He was staring me dead in the eye and said, 'So tell me, why exactly should I be merciful to the likes of you?' And you know what I said to him?" Grun looks around and sees everyone but Blake shaking their heads, although Blake doesn't look too happy.

"I said to him, 'Can't really think of a good reason, so go ahead and kill me, if that's what you wanna do.' It was actually kind of funny seeing the big guy reel back from that."

Every person there had looks of utter shock on their faces, before Weiss burst out with, "How could you have been so callous about your own life?!"

Grun smiled sardonically at her and said, "IQ, at that point I have spent most of my life in a place that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Not to mention I was struggling to even get enough food to eat. If I was destined to live that kind of life forever, why would I care if it suddenly came to an end?"

Weiss looked disgusted at the reasoning, but she didn't argue about it, begrudgingly conceding his point.

"Anyway, Ghira asked much the same, although my answer was much less articulate at the time. 'Boy, do you hold your life in so little regard?' I had shrugged and said, 'What worth is there to the life of an Abomination?'"

"That comment didn't go over so well, he asked me who I was and where I'm from, so I told him the story I just told you all. He stared at me for a long time before he stood, telling me to stay where I was before locking me in his office. He must have been gone ten minutes before he came back in, a woman his age in tow, carry a little girl wrapped in a blanket. She looked to be all of two years old, with shoulder length, Jet black hair, two adorable little kitten ears, and the brightest golden eyes I'd ever seen."

Grun smiles softly as he speaks. "He said, 'Kali, this is Grun, the boy I told you about.' The now named Kali gently handed the little girl to Ghira before coming to kneel in front of me, staring directly in my eyes. Her unwavering gaze was a little unnerving, she wasn't even blinking."

Blake giggled at this point, saying, "Ah yes, Mother definitely had her 'Mom Stare' down quickly." Grun laughs with her, saying, "I'm pretty sure she perfected it on me before you ever had to experience it, but anyway. After a couple of minutes she just smiles at me and says, 'Are you tired of sleeping in the streets?' I looked at her so confused, which she must have found funny cuz she whipped out a scroll and took a picture of me right then."

"After my head finally caught up with what she said, I finally spit out, 'Well, yeah. It sucks living out there. But what am I going to do? Not exactly many places hiring a ten year old these days. The whole, 'child labor law' thing kind of makes it hard for me to provide for myself.'"

"Kali just smiles at me and says, 'Well, what if I were to offer you something? It would include room and board, three meals a day, education in the future, and a chance to prove the director wrong."

"Sad to say, even that young I was jaded when it came to offers like that. So I look right at her and say, 'And what exactly would you be offering?' She stood up and put her hands on her hips before saying, 'A place in our family, of course.'"

Grun reaches signals the owner over and asks him for a beer. After he pops the top and takes a drink, Grun says, "I turned her down almost as soon as she offered." He smiles as he says, "The way she acted, you would have thought she was actually a fish Faunus."

"After she collected herself she asked me, 'And why would you not want to be in our family?' I glared at her and say, 'All the times one of us kids join a 'family' from that orphanage, they wind up dead within a week with most of their organs harvested. So you'll excuse me if the idea of being in a 'Family' doesn't particularly appeal to me.'"

"But let it be said, if there is one thing you can say about a Belladonna, they are stubborn as all Hell." Grun looks directly at Blake as he says this, who was actually blushing at this. "Anyway, Kali looks to her husband and says, 'Ghira, we cant let Grun here back out on the streets. He'll be dead within the week."

"I was a little perturbed at that comment and said, 'Been doing just fine these last few months.' Kali just ignored me and looked at Ghira. He stood a moment, looking between his wife and the little girl, before I saw an idea form in his eyes. 'How about this, then.' Ghira sets the child down and says, 'This is our daughter, Blake.' She waved to me as he said this. 'I would like to hire you to be her personal body guard.'"

All of the people there were slack jawed upon hearing this. But Grun kept going, "He said, 'As the leader of this city, as well as a few other things, it unfortunately makes me a very tempting target, and by extension, my family.' I was nodding along to his speech, 'And I also understand that my duties might not always allow me to be near my family where I can protect them.'"

"'My wife, I can say is an accomplished ex-huntress, and can easily take care of herself. But as you can imagine, our daughter does not have those skills yet. So until she does, I would like for you to keep her safe when we cannot.' I looked him in the eye and said, 'And during the times you don't need me to protect her?'"

Ghira just smiled smugly and said, 'Well, I suppose you could spend time playing with her, gaining an education, and maybe help with some chores around our house, if you were so inclined.'"

"I chuckled at this and said, 'This sounds suspiciously like you want me to join the family and be a big brother to her.' But Ghira had to keep his little game going, and said 'No, no, of course not. I am simply asking you to be my daughter's bodyguard, companion, and confidant. You would be compensated handsomely for it. Room and board, three square meals a day, all the games and books you'd like.'"

Grun frowned as he said, "I had finally had enough and just cut right to it. 'Why?' I asked him. 'Why are you willing to trust the life of your daughter so quickly to a stranger? I've already proven I'm a thief. You don't know if that is even the worse thing I've done. I could be a killer, a psychopath.'"

"Kali had smiled and said, 'Grun, we have better connections than you might think. Before you ever came here, we have heard from some of our…less fortunate informants that there has been a little wolf Faunus going around, spending what little money he has on warm clothes, hot food, and toys for other Faunus families who have it worse than him.'"

Yang started gushing at this, "I knew he was a good guy." Grun ignored what she said, but she couldn't help but notice the sudden reddening of Grun's human ears as she said this. "Anyway, I had said, 'And what makes you think that is me?' She smiled and put a hand on my cheek, 'His eyes are a deep Emerald green, that shines even in pitch black night, his hair is a deep, rich brown,' stopping to run a hand through my hair over my eyebrow," Grun stopping to copy the action, "'With a curious patch of Mercurial grey over his left eyebrow. He has a set of wolf ears that are constantly twitching, always listening for threats.'

Ghira cuts in here and says, 'Many of our contacts also tell us that you have fought groups of fully grown adults, numbering in as many as ten members, and WON to keep other Faunus safe. If you are willing to face such odds for people you don't know from Adam, how protective would you be of someone you truly care about? Or even someone you love?' He looked down to pet Blake as she said this, before continuing. 'You are a rare breed for people in this day and age. You are completely and utterly Selfless. You would sooner take the world on than see others suffer. That is why I want you to live with us. That is why I want you at our side. So, will you stay here? With us?' I stood there a good ten minutes, thinking of all the good and bad things that could come of this before finally sighing and saying, 'Very well. I will accept your offer, and do everything in my power to protect the young mistress, Blake. I will be the guardian, friend, and confidant she deserves. I swear this on the blood coursing through me.' Ghira smiled at me and said, 'Welcome to the family, Grun.'"

Grun chugged the last of his beer before deftly tossing it into a nearby trash can. "And that's the story of how I came to be under the care of the Belladonnas. I have been a part of their family, whether I had a choice or not, for Fifteen years now. And honestly? I'm happy I took him up on that offer." Blake reaches over and places a hand over Grun's, smiling at him.

Grun smiles back, before saying, "So, do I keep going on how I met Jaune? Or do we take a break?" Ruby bursts out next to Yang. "I want to hear more! I love stories!" She quickly realizes how childish she sounded before trying to hide in her cloak, her face making a very good imitation of it. Grun starts laughing uncontrollably, but quickly gets himself under control.

"Ok, ok," he says. "How can I deny such an adorable request?" All of Ruby's friends start laughing at her expense, but after a few jokes and jabs back and forth, Ruby finally comes put of her cloak and joins back into the conversation.

"So, it is actually a much shorter story with meeting Jaune. After being with Ghira for a few years, he decided I was strong enough and trustworthy enough to join his White Fang. A few more years passed before I rose through the ranks of becoming Ghira's second in command."

Grun gets interrupted again, surprisingly by Weiss this time, "You were the second in command for the ENTIRE White Fang?!"

Grun cocked an eyebrow at Weiss before saying, "Is it really so shocking? I had dedicated my life to helping Faunus. I was the last man to leave any rally that devolved into a fight to make sure all of our brothers and sisters got out safely."

"Not to mention," Blake interrupted, "Grun was the single most able bodied fighter the Fang had ever seen, from the very beginning even to this day. No one has come close to matching Grun's fighting capabilities."

Grun frowns at Blake before flicking her nose, causing her to tear up and whine at him. "Seeing as the White Fang started as a peaceful bridge between Humanity and Faunus, I would HOPE they didn't have need for warriors. And what have I told you about telling people that? You know how much I hate bragging, Baby Bell."

Yang starts to laugh at Blake's nickname, but Grun continues, "Anyway, after I had earned my position, Ghira asked me to reach out and act as an emissary to the Arc clan, whom he heard were happy to help any Faunus they came across."

"I happily accepted and made my way to the home of the Arc patriarch, Jonah. I had arrived in the afternoon, shortly after they expected me. When he opened the door, I was greeted with a handshake from Jonah and a thrown spear from his wife, Kida."

Everyone gasped at this, even Jaune, because he was never told the details of this first meeting. "'If you wish to speak to us as a fellow warrior, prove you are worthy of the title, 'Green Wolf.'"

Pyrrha looked confused at this, "Green Wolf?" Grun just sighs as he says, "It was a stupid nickname I got during a particularly nasty protest a few years before. My Aura is usually a really Dark Green, like my eyes, and they said that I defended my comrades with the ferocity of a wolf, so the damn name stuck."

"Wait," Ren finally spoke aloud. "I remember that day, you were recorded holding off an entire battalion of what turned out to be corrupt Atlasian SWAT members. You kept every single one of them at bay while the rest of the Fang gathered up the wounded."

Grun lets out an even louder sigh, "Look, can we please not make a big deal over what I may or may not have done? Whatever happened, I did because I felt it was the right thing to do, and let's leave it at that, ok?"

Everybody nodded, but there was a new shimmer of respect in several pairs of eyes there now. "Ok, so," Grun says, "As I was saying, Kida throws a spear at me, which I catch, then she throws down the gauntlet. And since Ghira had told me to try whatever was necessary to convince them to help, I happily agreed."

"We agreed to a no weapons sparring, no semblance, nothing. Just pure physical strength." Grun smiled again as he recalled the fight. "I was giving all I had not to let her wipe the floor with me. It had been so long since I had been physically outmatched, I was honestly dumbstruck the first time she hit me."

"So we are sparring from one end of their yard to the other for a solid twenty minutes. I'd gotten a few good hits in, but Kida's Aura was still well in the yellow, damn near in the green, while mine was on the redder side of Orange than yellow. As we ran at each other to deliver the final hit, A skinny blonde teenager came running up the path, completely oblivious to the two fighters closing in on his spot. We were so focused on each other; he was right between us before either of us could stop. In an act of desperation to not hurt the boy, I activated my semblance, creating a small area that reversed the gravity of anyone that touches the outside for a split second, launching the both of us into the surrounding trees before popping, leaving the child unhurt." Grun smiles as he lifts up his shirt, revealing a plethora of crisscrossing scars, pointing at a large hole in his abdomen, about three inches across. "Got this puppy from the tree limb that punctured me from the sudden flight, my Aura had shattered upon impact. I woke up a couple hours later, in a bedroom that hadn't seen a lot of use, an IV bag of blood in my arm and fresh bandages around my stomach."

Grun reaches over to ruffle Jaune's hair, much to Jaune's annoyance. "The same blonde boy came barging in right then, panting and sweating like he just ran a marathon. 'Mister,' he said to me, 'Are you ok? Can you move alright?'

"I smiled at him and said, 'That is my line. Did my semblance hurt you at all?' He shook his head. 'And Kida? Is she alright?'

'Mom? Ya, she is perfectly ok, her Aura was strong enough to avoid serious harm, just a couple bruised ribs.' I sighed and said, 'Oh thank Dust. Well, I should probably get going. I doubt that your parents will have much dealings with me after breaking the rules of a spar.'

"Before I could even shift, I heard a masculine voice say, 'Don't be so arrogant as to know what goes through my wife's head, Grun.' Jonah walked into the room and said, 'My wife sends her prayers for a fast recovery for you, and her acceptance of your strength.'

"Is she alright, I asked him. Jonah started laughing and said, 'Oh she is perfectly fine; her pride has just been bruised. You were the first person to actually hurt her since we got married. She is just too stubborn, sometimes.'

'But,' I said to him 'I broke the rules, I used my semblance.' Jonah shook his head and said, 'You did not use it to defeat my wife, you used it to protect someone you saw could get hurt. And I am thankful for this, because the boy you saved is my son, Jaune.' After the two of us introduced ourselves, Jonah said, 'Now, you are welcome to stay here until you heal completely. I will be contacting Ghira to tell him that we will offer any help that we can spare, and it is thanks to his Lieutenant, Grun. Now, rest for now.' He left right afterwards, leaving Jaune and I to talk."

"It took an entire week for me to heal properly, and in that time, Jaune and I became fast friends."

Everyone smiled happily at the story, but it was interrupted by the sound of a loud, wet cracking sound, almost crunching. Everyone looked over to Nora, who had just cracked a large crab leg that had gone with her seafood special, it now sitting on her plate at an odd angle. She squeaked out a meek 'sorry' before trying to quietly eat her food.

Jaune laughed at his teammates antics before looking at Grun, but he grew concerned at what he saw. Green was focused on the broken crab leg, and he was slowly turning green.

Before Jaune could ask what was wrong, Grun bolted to the door leading to the back alley, hand covering his mouth. Everyone watched this with worry in their eyes, before Yang blurted out, "The heck was that about? Grun hate seafood or something?" Jaune and Blake both shake their heads, "No," Jaune said, "As a matter of fact the only thing Grun likes more than seafood is steak. That display made absolutely no sense."

Jaune quickly rose to his feet, saying "I need to go see if he is alright. I'll be back." Jaune quickly went out the door Grun just left from, where is was quickly greeted by Grun's back next to a dumpster, the sound of terrible heaving quickly followed by a loud, wet splatter. After Grun calms down, he mutters out, "Shit, first decent meal in weeks and I puke the damn thing up." As he straightens up and uses a bottle of water to rinse his mouth out, he turns to find Jaune staring at him, concern evident in his eyes.

"Um," Grun says, "Can you believe that my stomach disagreed with dinner that badly?" Jaune stares at him unamused. "Grun, we both know that isn't what happened. You freaked out after Nora snapped that crab leg in half. Now what happened?"

Grun sighed as he sat on a nearby trash can, pulling out a pack of gum, offering Jaune a piece. "Well… that criminal we brought in with us, Roman Torchwick? He wasn't being forthcoming with information we needed. So we used….extreme measures to get the information out of him."

Jaune stared at Grun in shock, "You tortured him?!" Grun shook his head, saying, "No, no. I tortured his little tri colored psychopath. He apparently has a soft spot for her, so he gave up the info we needed. We had to break her arm before he talked, and I guess Nora accidently made me think about it."

"Grun," Jaune says, "That isn't right. It's TORTURE." Grun grunts in response before saying, "Jaune, I love you like a brother, but I WILL not apologize for what I have done. Nor will I get into a debate on the morality of torture. What's done is done, and I have to live with my choices, especially the ones that will haunt me."

Jaune sighs and says, "Fine, but this isn't over. I wanted to make sure you were ok. Take your time before you come back."

After Jaune walks off, Grun looks into a shadow just right of the door, saying with a smirk, "It's impolite to eavesdrop, you know."

Out of the shadow walks a very embarrassed Pyrrha, who is trying to explain herself to him. Grun simply chuckles before saying, "Don't worry about it, you were just checking on your leader." Pyrrha quickly nods in agreement, hoping he doesn't think there was any other reason.

"So, when are you going to tell Lil' Jaune that you are head over heels for him?" Pyrrha's blush quickly went from mortified to Atomic in a matter of seconds, quickly sputtering out denials.

"Sweetie, it is impossible to lie to me about this. Even if I WASN'T damn near choking on the pheromones you are pumping out for Jaune, it would take an idiot not to see how much you stare at him." Grun smiles widely at this. "Or more accurately, certain parts of him. Never would have pegged you for a butt girl, but hey, to each their own"

Pyrrha is actually convinced her hair will soon catch fire with how badly she is blushing. "Please, don't tell him. I want him to return my feelings, not feel forced into them."

Grun walks over and gently rubs Pyrrha's head, an action that has been lost to her for a very long time. "Don't worry, Spartan. Your secret is safe with me. Although, I suggest you act sooner, rather than later, before someone snatches him up. Just food for thought." He pats her shoulder as he walks past her, back into the restaurant. Pyrrha smiles widely before quickly following him inside.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Well, here we go with chapter 6 of Broken Fang. It will have just a little more fluff before we get back into the meat of the story, so just be patient just a little bit longer. As always, I want to thank my good friend Nickshephard for Beta reading my story for me.**_

As Grun walks back into the shop, he sees Teams RWBY and JNPR talking with two new boys, one a tall blue haired boy in a red jacket and goggles on his head, who is focusing on Weiss, whom Grun couldn't help but notice was blushing and preening under the attention from the boy.

What REALLY caught his attention, though, was the other boy. A Blonde monkey Faunus, his white button up shirt partially undone, reveling a set of, even Grun has to admit, somewhat impressive abb muscles. His long blonde tail was swishing back and forth, curling and uncurling excitedly as he was focusing almost exclusively on the other Faunus of the group, Blake.

Blake was trying her best to ignore the boy's attention, but Grun knew her well enough to notice the smallest dusting of a blush on her cheeks and the barest ghost of a smile on her lips. Grun couldn't help but feel happy, he knew how much Adam had once meant to Blake, so to see her happily giving another boy a chance to impress her.

But that happiness died a quick and horrid death when he saw the boy place a hand on Blake's shoulder. Such a seemingly innocuous gesture, no real familiarity behind it, but to Grun, it drug something out of him he thought he'd left behind years ago. Big Brother Mode.

As Grun slowly walked over towards Blake, he vaguely heard Jaune and Yang call out to him, but he only had eyes for Blake and the Boy. Barely registering a whispered "Oh no. Oh poor Sun" from Jaune, he finally walked up behind the boy, dropping a heavy hand on his shoulder before smiling sweetly to Blake.

"Blake," Grun spoke in a low rumbling tone, causing a shiver to pass through both of the teens, though Blake was having a rather impressive show of alternating between paling dangerously white and blushing a furious red.

"Y-y-yes, Grun?" Blake managed to croak out, keeping her eyes fixed firmly AWAY from Grun's.

"I'm almost hurt. You have a _**nice**_ ," Grun punctuates this by gripping the boys shoulder, a quick squeak of pain coming from him before he is silenced by Blake staring into his eyes, shaking her head furiously at him.

Grun continues, "young man hear, and you haven't introduced us yet. I believe introductions are in order, _**don't you?**_ " Blake gulps loudly before finally looking into Grun's eyes, seeing deep, burning pools of emerald staring back at her.

"O-of course." Blake squeaks out. "Grun, this is Sun Wukong, leader of Team SSSN. He and Neptune over there," Grun spares a glance over to the other boy, who also pales and hides behind JNPR after seeing the emotions in Grun's eyes. "Both arrived not too long ago to see Beacon and Vale before the tournament. They are both good friends of our teams. And," Blake straightened up a little as she spoke, "He helped us fight Roman and the Fang not too long ago when they tried to rob a delivery of Dust."

Grun stared into Sun's eyes for a moment, seeing pain, fear, and just a spark of defiance in the teen's eyes. After looking at him a moment, he finally released his shoulder, an audible gasp of relief escaping Sun's lips.

Grun turns to face Sun fully, sizing him up, and grudgingly admitting to himself the boy looks capable of handling himself in a fight, if he seemed a little rough around the edges. Grun extends a hand towards Sun, who seems hesitant to take it. He tries to sneak a peek at Blake, seeing her nodding her head furiously at him to take Grun's hand.

Sun finally takes Grun's hand, expecting to have it crushed. He is surprised when Grun squeezes his hand firmly, though not painfully so, before gently shaking his hand. "My name is Grun Gräuel, former lieutenant to the leader of the White Fang," Sun pales at hearing Grun say this, "Leader of Team GMBL, and Blake's Older Brother."

If Sun looked pale at the first revelation, he turned practically green at the last. _"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."_ Sun is thinking in his head. _"I didn't know she had a brother, let alone a BIG Brother! Oh Oum, he's going to kill me! And he said he was THE lieutenant to the White Fang, not A lieutenant! He's going to kill me then have a lackey get rid of my body!"_

Sun's inner freak out is cut short by Grun letting out a rumbling roll of laughter, causing Sun to look at his face. Grun's eyes are closed as he lets loose a loud chuckle, tears streaming from his eyes. Sun looked to Blake for an answer, but found her quietly motioning him to stay quiet, as she wipes sweat from her forehead.

"Sorry about that," Grun finally gets out after he stops laughing. "I get very protective of people I care about. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to see the fear in your eyes when you realized I was her brother."

Grun stands up straight and looks Sun in the eyes, all traces of anger gone from his eyes, but he can see a steely determination in his eyes, as well as an ocean of love, "All joking aside, I want to ask you just two questions." Sun nods quickly, hoping to have Grun's blessings, though he can't explain why.

Grun looks to Blake before speaking, "I, better than anyone in this world, understand how jealously Blake guards her heart. Yet, as hard as it is to believe, in such a short amount of time, you have at least worn down some of the barriers she has erected. This means she trusts you, and I don't know if you appreciate how much that means."

Grun snaps his eyes back to Sun, pinning him in place with his glare, "So my first question to you, _Boy_ , is this. Should I have any reason to suspect that the trust she has shown you has been misplaced?"

Sun stands up straighter as he matches Grun's stare and tells him, "No, sir. Blake is an amazing person, and I would never betray the trust she has shown me." Grun catches Blake's face lighting up before she turns away from the two.

Grun smiles a little before looking back to Sun, who is still staring at Grun unwaveringly, although he sees the barest tremble in his hands. "Good. Do not **EVER** betray that trust." Sun relaxes just a little as he nods.

Grun relaxes as well before he speaks again. "Now, my second question is this. What are your intentions with Blake?" Sun smiles before answering without thinking, "To show her a good time."

Sun doesn't know what happened before he found himself lying on his stomach on the restaurant floor, with what feels like the weight of a Bullhead pressing against his back. He hears a deep growl resonate above him, " _ **A GoOD TImE, yOU Say?"**_

Sun quickly realizes that he has screwed up, badly. He turns his head to look at Grun, but the look on his face scares him worse than anything has in his entire life.

Grun was smiling at him. But there was not a trace of joy or humor in his smile. It was a smile of barely restrained rage and bloodlust. It was more a look of rictus, a face locked into a grimace. His eyes are mostly covered by his hair, but the few glints of color Sun could see in the shadows _screamed_ of the power within them.

"W-wait," Sun wheezed out painfully, "I didn't mean it that way, I swear!" Grun smiled wider as he tilted his head. " **Oh** ," Grun practically purred out, " **Do go on. I would LOVE to hear EXACTLY what you meant by showing my Baby Bell a good time,** " as Grun spoke, he knelt down next to Sun, a single claw from his left gauntlet gently pressed against Sun's spine.

Sun could feel the pressure on his back move with Grun's claw, dancing up and down his spine, almost as if it was _waiting_ for Grun to let it loose and crush him. "I-I understand how it sounded after I said it, but I swear, I didn't mean it like I was just trying to get into her pants!"

Grun starts clicking his tongue as his claw makes its way up Sun's back, resting at the point where his neck and shoulders met, directly over his spine. " **Words of desperation, lies spat out in hopes of mercy. But you will get none from me,** _ **BOY.**_ **I will die before I let someone play upon Blake's feeling for their own satisfaction.** __ **I will not let Blake come to harm, physically, emotional, or otherwise.** "

Grun slowly pulls his claw away, locking his arm back before speaking again, " **Any last words, pig?** " Sun tries to think of anything that could prove his sincerity, but he came up empty. Slowly he shook his head, before closing his eyes.

Grun scoffs, " **Hmph, typical.** " Grun slams his fist down, burying his claws deep into the floor, before spider web cracks spread out, shattering the floor in a good three foot circle. As he slowly lifts his hand, Sun's face is seen, eyes closed but unharmed.

Grun stands, dusting his pants off. "Get up, Sun." Sun's eyes fly open, realizing he was still alive. "W-what?" he croaks out. Grun looks him in the eye before speaking. "I believe you. You don't only want to be with her for her body."

Sun shakily stands up, his knees shaking horribly from fear and the sudden lack of weight on him. "What do you mean you believe me?! Then why go through that?!"

Sun quickly regrets the tone he took when he sees Grun frown and cock an eyebrow at him. "Are you saying I _shouldn't_ believe you?" Sun quickly shuts up and furiously shakes his head.

Grun sighs before saying, "If you MUST know, I had to test your resolve, and nothing tests that like life and death. I have interrogated more than my fair share of people, Human and Faunus both, and I have become VERY good at differentiating between lies and truth."

Grun sees Jaune's face become conflicted at this, but he ignores it before continuing. "If you had been less than sincere, you would have been willing to try ANYTHING to get me to not go through with it. Crying, begging, admitting the truth in hopes for mercy. But you didn't. You were telling the truth from the beginning and didn't try to lie or change your story. That is why I believed you."

Sun nodded before looking to Blake. "You were just going to let him do that?" Before Blake could answer, Jaune was the one to speak up. "You were never in any danger. We all knew that you were telling the truth and knew that Grun would eventually believe you. If we honestly thought you were in danger, we would have told Grun to stop, and he would have let you go, though we'd never let you near us again."

Sun looks to Jaune and Blake, not believing what he heard, asks, "You actually think you're strong enough to stop _HIM_?!" Jaune and Blake both start laughing, before Blake answers him. "Oh Oum no. Both of our teams could take Grun on and STILL be lucky if we could over power him. But, we wouldn't need strength to stop him. We have something even better."

Before Sun could ask what they meant, Grun spoke up. "Trust, is what they have. I trust Jaune and Blake with my life, and I trust them to call me to task if I am going too far. All it would have taken was a single word from either of them and I would have stopped. But the fact that they didn't spoke volumes to me. They trusted me to make the right choice."

Sun finally calmed down before sitting on a near chair. "So," Grun says, "Now that you have a clear head and no blade at your neck, tell me what you meant."

Sun slowly nods, taking a moment to collect his thoughts. "Well," he started, "I know that she can be a bit of a loaner and a recluse, so I wanted to have a chance to show her that being out with friends, out with me, can be just as fun as staying home and reading."

Grun crosses his arms, staring into Sun's eyes again. "Is that all?" Sun gulps before he says, "W-well, I also wanted to show her that I could be a fun guy to have…*ahem* as her… boyfriend."

Both Sun and Blake were blushing brightly at this, but Grun finally cracks a smile. "Well," he says as he stretches his arms over his head. "That's good enough for me." Sun looks at Grun incredulously, "That's all it took?!"

Grun, "You almost having your spine crushed like a worm under a Goliath's foot would seem like a pretty big deal to me, but if you think that isn't much, hey that's your business. Buy yes; you have proven that you are trustworthy to me. So I will not bother you about trying to date my little sister."

Sun looks so relieved upon hearing this, but a shiver goes up his spine at Grun's next words. "However, if you give me _**ANY**_ reason to believe that you intentionally hurt Blake, than today will seem like a gentle back rub compared to what I will do to you. Are we clear?"

Sun visibly wilts under Grun's glare, before meekly nodding his head. "Good," Grun says, "Then we have no problems." Grun finally turns away from Sun, not seeing Sun practically melt on the floor after being let free from Grun's glare.

Blake walks over and comfortingly rubs her hand on Sun's back, before he says, "Your brother scares the hell out of me." Blake gently laughs before she says, "I think he likes you, honestly." Suns stares up at her, his eyes wide as dinner plates, "H-how?!"

"Well, that last guy who tried to speak to me and Grun found out he just wanted a quick lay, wound up in the hospital. I'm pretty sure his arms never did heal right."

Sun quickly turned to look at Grun, who was laughing with Jaune and a couple of their friends. "How?" Blake turned to look at Sun, who was still staring at Grun, but it almost looked like he looked to him in admiration.

"How can he be so…real? So…honest? So strong? He looks like he would willingly take on the world to protect his friends and family. And even more amazing I think he could actually pull it off." Blake smiled as she looked at Grun again, though this time he had Jaune in a headlock, relentlessly noogeying his the top of his head, Jaune's attempts to break Grun's hold looking like weak slaps to his arms.

"He didn't have a thing when he was a kid. He grew up in an orphanage. My parents found him and gave him a home, family," Blake gently pulls a locket from her shirt, opening it to reveal a pair of pictures, the first being Grun with Blake and their parents, Grun holding an eight year old Blake on his shoulders, both covered in dirt and scrapes, smiling widely as Ghira and Kali look at the felled tree behind them, Kali looking like she would burst out laughing any second.

The second picture was of an older Grun standing with ten other people, each one a different shade of Blonde, from dirty strawberry to albino white. Grun being the only spot of dark hair in the bunch. Each one of them smiling widely at the camera; standing in front of a freshly painted house, all of the children and parents sporting all manner of colors on them and their clothes.

"Grun finally had the family and friends he wanted and, in my opinion, deserved." Blake carefully closed the locket. "And he will do anything to keep his family safe." As Blake put the locket back, she heard a loud, heavy metal song start playing. Confused at first, she sees Grun let Jaune go before pulling a scroll out of his jeans.

"Go ahead," Grun rumbles out as he brings the scroll up to his ears. A serious look comes to his face before he says, "You trust them?" A small smile crosses his lips before says, "Good, thanks for the tip." As he replaces his scroll, he sees Blake and Jaune move to stand in front of him.

"Grun," Jaune says first, "Who was that?" Grun doesn't answer at first, thinking about his answer, before he finally responds. "A contact of mine just told me there is a White Fang outpost a few days ride from here. The rest of my team and I are going to make our way there first thing in the morning."

Blake speaks up, "But Ozpin told you to take a couple days off. It hasn't even been a day yet and you want to go back out there?" Grun shrugs his shoulders at her.

"Hey, you and I both know how quickly the Fang can pack up and move, so we have to get there as soon as we can. I'm at least giving them the night to rest before we move out."

Blake and Jaune both look upset upon hearing Grun was leaving again. "But we just caught back up." Jaune says. "We were excited to get to spend time with you after so long."

Grun smiles before reaching up and rubbing both of their heads, messing their hair up as much as he can. Both the teens tried to act like they hated it, but anyone there could see them enjoying the contact.

"Don't worry you two, I should only be gone a week, two weeks at the most. We'll have plenty of time to catch up when I get back. I promise." Grun removed his hands from the two, crossing them and smiling as he watched them try to fix their hair.

"As much as I hate to admit it," Grun continues, "Ozpin was right. I have been too focused on my mission and have neglected my family. In the long run, a couple days here and there spent with friends won't hurt me."

Grun starts walking out the door, checking his watch when he sees how dark it is. "Oh wow," he exclaims, "Ya'll better get going if you're goanna make the last Bullhead back to Beacon. Ya got about twenty minutes before the last one leaves." RWBY and JNPR all look at their scrolls before sprinting towards the station, a mattering of "Let's go!"s and "Nice meeting you!"s being heard as they ran, as well as a couple of tight hugs from Jaune and Blake before they disappear as well.

As Grun laughs quietly and reaches for his scroll to call his team, he hears a quiet clearing of a throat behind him. He turns around to find Yang standing there, one arm holding her opposite elbow, clearly unsure of what she was doing.

"Yang?" Grun asks. "Is everything ok? You're going to miss your flight." Yang coughs, a light blush on her cheeks before she finally says, "Yes, everything is fine, I just wanted to talk to you alone for a minute, if that was ok?"

Grun looked confused but nodded his head. "Yes, it's fine, what can I do for you?" Yang quietly mumbles something, nerves making it hard to speak clearly.

Grun moved a little closer to her as he said, "Could you repeat that? I couldn't hear you." Grun jumped back slightly when her head jerked up, face a bright pink as she practically shouted, "I wanted to exchange scroll information with you!"

Grun stares at her a moment, wondering if he heard her wrong. He finally cleared his throat and said, "Y-you want to exchange scroll info with me?"

Yang doesn't respond verbally, only nodding to his question. "I…I suppose that's ok. Any particular reason behind this?"

Yang, who seemed to blush even harder, said "I just wanted to stay in touch with you, see if I can get to know you better." Yang's head droops down a little before she whispers, "But if you don't want to, I understand. Kind of a weird thing to just shout at a guy you just met today."

Grun shakes his head, as he says, "No, no I'd be happy to talk with you more. It just kind of came out of nowhere, is all." Grun held a hand out, before Yang placed her scroll into his hand. As he was typing his info into her scroll he chuckled quietly.

"Heh, asking the guy who mopped the floor with you earlier to keep in touch with you, huh? You're not a masochist, are you?" He smiled up at Yang, seeing her blushing madly before she pulled her hair over her shoulder and starts playing with it, not realizing the curly, unruly mass of blonde had Grun mesmerized.

"I-it's nothing like that." Yang started gently pulling her fingers through her hair, Grun watching as her fingers would disappear and reappear throughout the golden ocean of her hair.

"I just have always had a great respect for strength. Both my dad and my uncle are RIDICULOUSLY strong. And with my fighting style and Semblance, it is nearly impossible to meet someone who is stronger than me."

To most people, this would have come off as an arrogant statement, but Grun could tell that her strength could back up the claim if Junior made were anything to go by.

"Plus," Yang started blushing even harder by now. "The way you treat you friends and family, it really resonated with me. There are very few things that are more important than my family, and there is NOTHING more important to me than Ruby." Yang finally let her hair go before looking Grun in the eyes.

"But if half of the stories that Blake told us while you were talking to Jaune are true, then the lengths you would go to, and have gone to, to protect your loved ones surpass what I ever could."

Yang was standing there staring into Grun's eyes, slowly stepping to him so that she almost touching him. She reached out and put her hand into the palm of his, not realizing that she covered her scroll in the process.

Before either of them could say anything, Grun's scroll started blaring with the same song as earlier. Grun pulls put his scroll to see a number pop up on the screen before looking to their hands, seeing that Yang had accidentally called his number that he just entered.

Grun starts laughing before cutting off his scroll. He looks back and sees that their hands are still touching. As he looks back up to Yang, he sees amusement dancing in her bright, lilac eyes. He smiles before turning their hands, letting her scroll rest in her hand again before pulling his hand back.

His expression turns serious before he speaks again. "Yang," he begins hesitantly, "I'm going to be honest with you. I don't know what you expect to come from this. I am happy to be friends, it would be nice to have someone besides my team to just talk to again."

Yang smiles as he says this, which makes him feel worse for what he says next. "But I very much doubt that I would he ready to move on anytime soon. I don't want to sound like an arrogant ass by thinking that you are looking for anything like that, but I just want to be clear from the beginning, on the off chance that that is what you are hoping for."

Yang's smile faltered a little before she smiled even wider. "Oh, no. I wouldn't think that you would be ready so soon after…what happened. But I won't lie and say that the idea doesn't sound appealing to me. Plus, the fact that you brought it up means that you at least THOUGHT about it. So, I'll just have to wait. Wait and see if you might eventually be willing to try."

Grun frowned hearing her say this. "Why would you want waste your time waiting on the off chance that some broken old man might decide he's ready for a relationship? You're young, beautiful and full of energy. You should have boys line up around the block trying to ask you out."

Yang reaches out and slaps his arm before she answers. "You are not old. You're not even ten years older than me. And whatever time I have to waste is MY time to waste, however I see fit."

Yang blushes when her head caught up with what Grun had said, "And the ones wanting to ask me out being boys is the problem. They are BOYS, immature muscle heads who only see me as a piece of meat."

Yang reached out to gently poke Grun in the chest. "You treat me with respect. I'm willing to bet that the entire time we've spoken you haven't once tried to peek down my shirt."

Grun actually blushed a little at this. "I fail to see how that is relevant." Yang smiled as she drug her finger up Grun's chest, over his neck, before resting against his temple, gently tapping it a few times.

"And that is another thing. You're intelligent. The little I've seen of you shows you always think things through, no matter the situation. Most boys my age are strike first, and think if they have time after."

Yang took a step back before hitting Grun with a wide, bright smile before she said, "So, like I said, I am more than willing to wait until you may be ready. Until then, I am happy to be friends with you. It'd be nice to have someone I can call to just talk to, knowing that there is not alternative reason to it."

Grun smiles back to her, his cheeky grin making her heart skip a beat. "You'll have to let me know how that feels, Miss 'waiting for a chance.'" Seeing her blush a little at this, Grun's smile turns more genuine, "But I agree, it would be nice to have someone to talk to."

Grun looks to his watch before saying, "You may want to hustle, you have about five minutes to make it to the Bullhead." Yang squeaks in surprise before running off, hollering that she'll see him later as she goes.

Grun chuckles before heading to his hotel room for the night. The next morning finds Grun waiting by his D-ATV, as two more pull up next to him. MBL look to their leader as they stop, waiting for orders.

"Alright, we have a couple days worth of driving ahead of us. The outpost is just east of the Mountains, so it'll take some time to get through them. Informant said there is some weird stuff happening there, so we are to investigate first, gather what intel we can before we leave. We do not engage unless forced to, understand?"

Leere, Blitz and Macht all nodded before firing up their D-ATV's. Before they pull off, Macht stops everyone. "Oh, boss." He says, "Jaune called me last night and wanted me to ask what happened." Grun looks at him confused before he continues, "He said that one of his friends almost didn't make the Bullhead back to Beacon. Think he said her name was 'Yang', anyway he said she came sprinting up to them at the last second, but she was blushing and smiling from ear to ear. But she wouldn't tell them what held her up, so he wanted me to ask if you know what happened."

All three of them look to Grun, but they are shocked to see a blush on his face, but he speaks before they cam question him. "Nope, can't say that I do. Now-let's-hurry-and-get-going!" Grun's sentence quickly picking up speed before he gunned the throttle and took off, leaving his team behind.

Blitz and Leere both look to Macht, all three of them slowly smiling, before Blitz says, "Oh we are GOING to find out what happened." The other two nodded before taking off, doing their best to catch up with their leader.

 **Two days later**

After two days of driving, and never ending pestering, Grun finally cracked and told his team what happened between Yang and him. And he regretted telling them immediately.

After the good-natured ribbing had passed, it quickly devolved to constant questions and reasons for him giving her a chance. "Boss," Blitz was saying as they pulled up to an outcropping on a cliff, "Come on, what could be the harm in seeing if it goes anywhere? She sounds like you are everything she looks for in a guy."

Grun pulls out his binoculars, looking out across the mountain, finally spotting a rock face that looked too uniform to be natural. "I found it, we walk from here,"

Before they walked off, Grun finally spoke. "Look, I know you guys worry about me. But please let it go. I…I don't know if I'm ready to move on."

Leere looks like she wants to say something, but he cuts her off. "I'm not saying that I'll NEVER be ready, I'm saying I'm not ready RIGHT NOW. I mean, I just met her three days ago, for crying out loud, I cant make a decision that quickly!"

Leere looks conflicted, but she can't really argue with his reasoning, so she lets it go. Blitz and Macht both begrudgingly accept his answer, but aren't ready to let it go yet. But they can put it on hold for now.

"Alright, it shouldn't take too long to make it there, so let's get moving while we have daylight." As the three set off, they all flip a switch on their vehicles, activating a cloaking system that changes the colors on the D-ATV's to match the surrounding rock. It isn't a perfect camouflage, but it blended in enough to be looked over in a cursory glance.

After twenty minutes of careful movement and sporadic hiding, they came across the outpost. Carved into the mountain face, were several single story buildings. Staying hidden, GMBL made their way farther into the compound before they hear a deep, gravely voice cut through the silence.

"Be careful with those cages." They hear the voice say. "The programming takes time to kick in the first time, so if they get out, we're all in trouble."

As GMBL comes to a final corner, Grun peeks around to see a group of roughly fifteen Faunus moving large metal cages, each one shaking and shuddering from the impact of what they held.

"Grimm," Grun growls out, " They've actually managed to capture Grimm alive. What in seven hells could they possibly need live Grimm for?" Three cages stand in the middle of the group, each cage holding either a Boarbatusk an Alpha Beowolf, or an Ursa Major. All the creatures were slamming against their cages, trying to escape and eviscerate their captors.

"What in Remnant...?" Before Grun can continue, someone walks into the center of the group. The fact that it's large and in the shape of a person is the only details Grun can see from it, because it is wearing full, military style body armor, except this armor has been modified, extremely.

Not a single patch of flesh or cloth can be seen beneath the armor, which is a steel gray color, with sage green trimmings around it. The arms and legs have sporadically placed holes that look like cable jacks. On its back is a large, boxy apparatus that almost looks like it has thrusters built into it.

Lying on top of the apparatus is a large, single bladed battle-axe, a dark, almost black gray color. Several switches and triggers along the handle shows its mecha-shifting capabilities, though Grun can't easily tell what it could change into. But there also seemed to be a fully automatic pistol attached to the person's thigh, if the large magazine sticking out of it were any indication.

But the most intimidating feature had to be the helmet. It was the same gunmetal grey, but it had a large Sage green X going across the visor, starting at each temple before crossing down to the opposite jaw line.

"Alright," Grun hears the same deep voice come from the person in armor, identifying him as a male. "I want this experiment to go off without a hitch, so everyone be on guard in case something happens."

The man lifts his arm, focusing on a bracelet on his wrist. He looks over to a White Fang member next to him, holding a camcorder, beginning to record him as he speaks.

"This is Captain Locus, about to begin our thirty fifth experiment with our new toy that our 'Queen' gave us. So far, there has been intermittent success with these wrist bands, which i believe has more to do with the psychological fortitude of the previous users more than the actual equipment."

He then holds his wrist to his mouth before he says, "I am your master now, you WILL submit to me. Bow down before your master" As soon as he says this, all three of the caged Grimm stand ramrod straight, before bowing down in his direction, placing their faces to the barred floors of their cages, all previous signs of anger and aggression gone from them.

Team GMBL is completely gob smacked by this. Grun looks to his team, shaking in worry and disbelief, "How is this possible? That guy is CONTROLLING Grimm!"

All three of them shake their heads at him, before Macht says, "I don't know boss, but we have to leave. If they can control the Grimm, there is no telling what else they can do. We have to get back to Vale and get this info to Ozpin as fast as we can."

Blitz and Leere both nod to Grun, who thinks it over and says, "Agreed, but we need to stay a little longer, see if there is anything else we can find out about it."

As the four of them move back into position, they see that the three cages has been unlocked and opened, with every Fang member having a weapon trained on one of the Grimm.

The now named Locus is staring at the three creatures before continuing his narration. "It seems that my earlier theory of mental fortitude holds merit. The last experimenter could barely keep a single Boarbatusk at bay." Locus walks up and places a hand upon the Ursa Majors head. "The greater your will, the greater your control, it would appear. To think, we had such a time with consistently having the Grimm follow orders at the Breach."

Locus stepped back away from the Grimm before he speaks again. "If they had a soldier at the lead of that instead of a lackey, Vale would be nothing but ashes by now."

"Now, for a true test. Ursa, you are to remain where you are, do NOT move a muscle." The Ursa nodded slowly, before sitting down on its haunches. Locus points to a Fanger standing near the beast.

"You, go over and stick your arm in its mouth." The grunt, as well as everyone else, stares at the man in shock, before the grunt scoffs at him.

"Fuck you, merc. I'm not doin- **BANG!"** Before he could finish, faster than anyone could see, Locus had pulled out his sidearm and shot the Faunus's human ear, tearing a chunk from his earlobe and leaving a scorched line along his head from the bullet grazing past him. As he falls to the ground, clutching his ear and screaming, Locus's voice cuts through the noise.

"I will **NOT** stand for insubordination. All of you can consider this your one warning. Any dereliction of duty or insubordination will be dealt with quickly and efficiently. Now, I am telling you one last time, _**Stick your arm in this Ursa's mouth!"**_

As the grunt stands up again, he glares angrily towards Locus, but he walks over to the Ursa, reaching towards its mouth. "Open your mouth," Locus says, "And hold his arm between your teeth, but **DO NOT** bite him."

The Ursa growls menacingly, but slowly opens its mouth wide, letting the grunt place his arm that wasn't covered in blood in its mouth. As it slowly closes its mouth, teeth clinking against his arm guard, everybody tenses up in anticipation.

After a few moments without the sound of tearing flesh and blood curdling screams, everybody visibly relaxes, minus Locus, who has yet to shown any emotion whatsoever. "Release him" Locus says, but the Ursa growls lowly, metal groaning as its jaw presses down on the mans arms.

"I said **release him** ," Locus growls at the Ursa, causing the Grimm to finally let him go. As the grunt stumbles away, Locus turns to the camera speaking to it. "The Ursa resisted my command to release him at first. It would appear that they are less willing to obey commands if it goes against their nature if killing.

Locus tilts his head slightly, as though thinking. Finally he speaks aloud, "I wonder. The Grimm seem to be naturally programmed to kill anything, be it Human or Faunus. But I wonder if that programming can be turns against their own kind?"

He turns back to the Grimm before saying "Wolf, Boar, you two are to attack the Ursa and do your best to kill it. Ursa, you are to keep them from killing you, lethally if necessary." After Locus steps back, and the camera pans to look solely upon the Grimm, The Beowulf and Boarbatusk stare at the Ursa, with the Ursa staring right back. After a few tense minutes, the two lesser Grimm finally attack, doing their best to tear into the Ursa.

But the Ursa's armor and hide prove too tough to pierce with their tusks and claws and they are quickly crushed and beheaded by the Ursa's mighty claws. But after killing its brethren, the Ursa seems to have lost control of its higher functions, and starts Lumbering towards Locus.

"Stand down," Locus commands, but the Ursa continues to trudge towards him. "STAND... DOWN!" Locus intones more forcefully, but again, he goes unheeded. As the Ursa steps within striking distance, Locus finally moves, seeming to teleport behind it, War Axe held aloft and dripping with pitch black blood. After swinging it to clean it, the Ursa finally falls, splitting down the middle, each half flopping sideways before starting to crumble and scatter.

Turning back to the camera, Locus speaks as he puts away his weapon. "It would appear that either the act of killing overrode the bracelet's commands, the killing of its fellow Grimm drove it to madness, or a combination of the two. Either way, it seems that killing of other Grimm is mot recommended. Locus, ending recording." At this, the camera turns off and is put away.

Locus speaks to his subordinates, "This test was very enlightening. I shall return to Cinder and give her the results. You all stay here and prepare for the attack."

The White Fang Lieutenant walked up to Locus, "What makes you think the attack will go as planned? Is your little 'gift' as reliable as you boast? What if they find it before it starts?"

Locus looked to the Fang Lieutenant with a bit of an annoyed glare, "My virus is 100% untraceable. They won't know it's there until it's active, and by then, it'll already be too late... They ALWAYS leave back doors in their programs, they are too arrogant to think that nobody would notice and use them." Locus then puts his finger on the Lieutenant's chest, not only as a way of showing authority, but to show that he's not afraid to disrespect him in the center of a White Fang camp. Some of the Fang don't take too kindly to his disrespect, but Locus' troopers point their rifles at the Fang members in response to them. "Just make sure you people are ready, we're only getting one shot at something like this, and I don't intend to **waste** it."

As Locus starts making his way towards a small, stealth class Bullhead, Grun turns to his team. "We **HAVE** to retrieve that bracelet, if someone were to have the ability to control the Grimm, who knows what kind of trouble the could cause."

The rest of his team all nod, before Macht asks, "Plan?" Grun responds with, "You three go after the Fang, keep them focused on you. If I'm lucky, I can sneak up on this Locus fellow and get the drop on him. If I cant take the bracelet, maybe I can at least destroy it." Grun looks to his team, "Kill if they don't surrender, but we need one alive to question about this 'Attack'".

As his team nods in agreement, Grun quickly takes off, sticking to outcroppings and shadows from the evening sun. As he closes in on his target, he can hear the telltale sign of battle.

As shots ring out and steel dances against steel, he sees Locus look back towards the Fang. But instead of returning to help them, he continues on towards the Bullhead.

Just before he reaches the landing ramp, Grun leaps out of his cover, swinging his claws at Locus's head. But to his shock, Locus pulls his Axe out and stops his attack with ease.

"Well, well," Locus says, "So it seems that the infamous Grun Gräuel survived." Grun growled as he retreated, before launching a set of his claws at Locus, which he easily deflects. Though Grun was counting on that, as he comes flying behind the claws, swinging his body around to delivery a powerful roundhouse kick, while also retracting his claw chains.

His boot connects solidly with Locus's mask, but instead of knocking him over like he thought, his body barely moved. Locus reaches up and grabs Grun's leg, casually tossing him thirty feet away.

"I must say," Locus says as he steps back onto the ramp, "The stories I was told of your strength seem to be severely over exaggerated. To think, the 'Green Wolf' would be so disappointing in person." As the Ramp closes, the Bullhead lifts up and spins to face Grun, Locus sitting in the pilot's seat.

Locus's voice can be heard over the outside speakers talking, "While I would love nothing more than destroying you, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Perhaps we'll have more time the next time we meet."

Before Grun can respond, the Bullhead rockets off, the powerful engines barely making a sound. Grun curses before he turns and sprints to his team. As he arrives, he sees that most of the White Fang members are dead, save for two, a male coyote and a small female, who doesn't have any noticeable animal traits about her.

Grun walks up to the two, each one glaring defiance through the cuts and bruises. He sets on a nearby rock, glaring at the two, who actually seem intimidated by his stare.

"This is going to be a very simple process. I am going to ask you a question. You have three options, two of which will have the same results. The first option, and the easiest, in my opinion, is to answer me truthfully. Doing so will result in no further harm being brought upon you."

The coyote sneers at Grun, but doesn't say anything. The girl seems to be sitting there, not showing any further emotions. "The second option would be to lie to me, or to mislead me in any way. I can truthfully tell you, you do not want to attempt this. Two reasons, the first being that I will **KNOW** that you are not being truthful, the second being that I will have to hurt you."

Grun stops to walk towards a boulder that is easily three times his size, hitting it with a bit of his Gravity Semblance, making it easy to lift it above his head, turning to look at the two, both openly shaking and staring at him in fear.

"Believe me when I say I have no qualms about hurting you, in unique and creative ways." Grun tosses the boulder over his shoulder, releasing his Semblance as he did, letting it crush and pulverize smaller rocks as it landed.

"The third option would be that you flat out REFUSE to answer my question. Now to save time and theatrics, I just tell you that it would result in the same thing as the second option. You do not want this."

Grun steps forward and grabs the Coyotes shirt, lifting him up so that his feet dangle off of the ground. "Now, what is this Attack Locus was talking about?"

The man looked like he was thinking about not answering before he looked at the boulder over Grun's shoulder. "Adam is going to Attack Beacon during the Vytal festival. He is going to command Grimm to over run Amity, Beacon and Vale, as well as have his entire branch of the White Fang join in the attack."

Grun nods as he sets the man down. "What was the bracelet that Locus had? Where did he get it?" The man shook his head, "I don't know what it is, all I know is that someone called 'The Queen' gave it to some of the White Fang's scientists to see if they could replicate it and mass produce it. As far as I know, Locus had a copy, and only a few higher ups have the 'Perfect Originals' as they call them."

Grun nods his head, before asking him "Who is this 'Queen'?" Again he shakes his head, "No one I've spoken to knows. All I know is that whoever she is, she has the person controlling the White Fang under _HER_ control."

Grun nods before he says, "Alright, you are free to go then." The man looks between him and the girl, still battered and bruised, before speaking. "You're letting us go? Just like that?"

Grun looks him in the eyes before speaking again, "I am letting _YOU_ go because you answered my questions. _SHE_ is staying here until I am done with her."

The man gulps loudly, "D-done with her?" Grun smiles viciously, before he says, "I think I've earned a little reward after today, and she is going to provide it."

Seeing the man shudder, Grun says, "Now, run along before I decide you are too much trouble to keep alive." The man looks to the girl, almost like he might argue, but his self preservation overrides his desire to help a comrade and quickly scurries off.

After he is well out of sight and hearing distance, Grun hears a sigh and a snarky voice behind him. "Lordy Monty, could you have been any creepier?"

Grun turns around to see the girl stand up and dust herself off, flicking her long ponytail behind her head, the small tight curl at the end bouncing as she does. Her skin quickly shifts through several colors before settling on her normal freckled skin tone, all hints of bruises gone.

"It's bad enough the guy saw his entire team killed, now he has to go around thinking he just left an ally to a rapist?" Grun shrugs before answering, "I have set about to tear down the White Fang, the hell do I care what they think about me while I do? Hell, if word gets around that I am much more brutal than I really am, maybe they'll be more willing to surrender."

Grun scoffs before he says, "Besides, if the coward had any measure of a spine, he **SHOULD** have put up a fight for you. Since he couldn't do that I have no regrets on making him think that."

Grun smiles darkly before continuing to speak, "Or were you disappointed that I've no intention of following through on it? You like the idea of being ravaged by the big Bad Wolf? You sure have a twisted kink, 'Milian, but I won't think less of you for it."

The girl glares at Grun before flipping him off. "I've told you to stop calling me that. You know I hate that nickname. And I wouldn't let you near me with that thing if it had the cure for cancer in it."

Grun starts laughing at her, before he smiles more naturally at her, "Ok, ok, sorry Ilia. I can't help it when your reaction is just so funny."

The now named Ilia scoffs before rolling her eyes, "Why the hell did I agree to help you?" Grun quickly adopts a serious expression as he answers, "Because you loved Arianna just as much as I did, and you don't want the Fang to get away with what happened anymore than I do."

Ilia turned away from Grun but sighs, "I just… they've been my family for so long. It hurts so bad knowing I used to support people that have fallen so far." Grun steps up and places a hand on her shoulder, "It's not any easier for me. Hell, you never would have been dragged into this if I never met your sister."

Ilia shakes his hand off of her shoulder, turning to Grun. "Just because I am helping you does not make us friends Grun. Never, ever make that assumption. You are simply the easiest way to get revenge for Arianna. Nothing more."

Ilia's frown deepens further before she continues, " And don't _ever_ think the love you felt could measure up to **half** the love I had for my sister. She was the world to me after our parents passed. And I won't have that memory tarnished."

Grun smiles sadly before he speaks, "Of course, my apologies. So, do you have any info your 'friend' wasn't forthcoming with?" Ilia shakes her head before answering. "The only thing I can think of is that I heard the woman Adam was talking to talk to her subordinates after he left. She said something about 'getting the rest of Fall's powers' during the attack, whatever that means."

Grun quietly curses to himself hearing this. 'Damn,' he thinks to himself, 'Jonah was right, someone went after Fall.' He shakes his head before he turns back, "When is the attack?"

Ilia then pulls out her scroll, thumbing open an itinerary. "According to Adam, it is supposed to be within the week, but I never could find the exact day."

Grun nods before he turns to his team. "Alright, we got as much information as we could, we need to get back to Vale and hope we can get to Ozpin in time." He turns towards Ilia, "Will you be able to make it back by yourself?"

Ilia scoffs before she responds, "Of course I can, you moron. There is a small bunker we found that we stashed some single man fliers in."

Grun nods before asking, "What will you tell them when they ask how you got away?" Ilia tilts her head back and forth before responding, "I'll probably spin some story of how you had your way with me until you passed out, letting me slip away in your sleep. Throw in a couple of sobs and tell them how Marcus had left me to your tender mercies, and boom, I'm the clever victim who managed to return to the fold."

Grun smiles before he says, "Good luck, Ilia. Just be careful, ok? If you even THINK someone is looking at you suspiciously, bug out immediately. Call me, or one of my friends and we'll come get you."

Ilia laughs at him as she walks away, "I'd have to be willing to believe you actually HAD friends other than GMBL." Ilia stops for a moment as she mutters, "But, thank you, Grun. And….you be careful too. I may not care for you, but you were important to Arianna. So there must be **SOMETHING** worthwhile in you…somewhere." Ilia disappears behind a large stone, before GMBL turns and goes back to their D-ATV's.

"Alright, everyone." Grun says, "I want to be back in Vale by sundown tomorrow, so we ride hard, and we don't stop. Any problems?" MBL all shake their heads before driving off, hitting top speed once off the mountains.

 _ **The next day, midday.**_

As the group was able to see Vale in the distance, a wave of relief swept over the team. The closer they got to Vale, however, they were overcome with an unbearable sense of dread. Once their scrolls were close enough to fully connect with Vale's CCT, all of their Scrolls suddenly lit up and started playing a video.

As the stopped and looked at the screen, one name was on their lips.

" _ **Cinder"…**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**Hey everybody, Nightengale here with the next chapter. I want to thank Nickshephard for Beta reading my chapter for me, as always, and let everyone know there is a short afterward at the end of the chapter, for anyone interested. Now, without further ado, onwards!**_

While the recording was running in the background, team GMBL is quickly making its way towards Beacon tower. Their advancing is slow, each step they take earned throw sweat and Grimm carcasses. When they finally get a chance to catch a breath, having finished a particularly obnoxious pack of Beowolves, they hear an ear splitting roar pass over them as they are thrown into shadows.

Looking up, the team sees a large, winged lizard Grimm flying over them, heading straight towards Beacon tower. "No," Blitz whispers. Macht growls in anger, "It was supposed to only be a Legend!" Leere is staring directly at the creature as she speaks, "Smaug, the destroyer, the progenitor. He is real."

Grun looks to his team, seeing the fear in their eyes. He stands before them and yells, "Pull yourselves together! We have people we need to protect!" Leere, Blitz and Macht all snap out of their daze, before looking to Grun, the fear on their faces not as prominent but still there.

"We will worry about Smaug later. We have a job to do now, focus on that." Grun's teammates all nod to him before they fall in line behind him. As they are about to take off, they see a shining white light just north of them, between them and Beacon Tower. Grun squints at the light, hoping that it isn't what he suspects it to be.

GMBL all sprint towards Beacon, finding that there is more room to breathe with more and more teams joining the fight. The farther they move, the more destruction they see. But as they near a particularly large intersection, Grun starts seeing small, glowing green chunks littering the ground. Sparing a closer look, he sees that they are the destroyed remains of a Deathstalker stinger.

As they get even closer, Blitz sees a large pincer imbedded in a wall, though he would only call it half a claw, really. Before it started to dissolve and disappear, he couldn't help but notice how smooth the cut side of the claw was, but it dissolved as he focused on it, playing it off as a trick of the light. As they finally pass through the intersection, Grun stops when he sees the large decaying remains of two Deathstalkers.

"Everyone, stop." Blitz looks at the creatures, unimpressed. "Its two dead Deathstalkers, big deal. We've dealt with them before."

Grun shakes his head. "Not like this we haven't. We ALWAYS take them on as a team. But look around, there is no signs of firearms, no signs of heavy weaponry." Grun looks to see several sets of indentations surrounding and leading to the bodies.

"These things weren't killed by a team of Huntsmen. They were killed by one person." Grun kneels down to inspect a deep scoring in the road, recognizing it to be where a sword was pulled along in a sprint. The edges were slick, smooth as glass, as though the weapon was pulled so fast it MELTED the pavement.

"What Huntsman could do such a thing?" Leere asks. Grun takes one final look at the aftermath, running several scenarios through his head, before he comes to a terrifying conclusion.

"It's Jaune." Grun says, worry lacing his voice. "He has begun to tap into his powers. Jonah warned me this could happen." Grun turns to his team. "We have to find Jaune, NOW. If he keeps using his power so recklessly, it could destroy him"

Grun's teammates look skeptical, but they do not doubt or question him. As they nod to him, they all sprint off farther towards Beacon. They arrive at a landing pad where they find Sun standing next to a tall dark skinned boy, and a skinny red head kid who looked like he wanted to be a pirate. The group was inspecting the dissolving remains of a headless Goliath. By them were a female rabbit Faunus and a sword-wielding giant of a man. But what caught Grun's eye were Yang and Blake, lying on the ground next to Nora and Ren, who are leaning back to back with each other.

Leere and Grun sprint over to Blake, Yang, Nora and Ren while Blitz and Macht move to the other teams to see what info they can gather.

"Leere, check for injuries." As Leere is going over the two girls with her Aura, Grun turns to Ren. "Ren, I need a status update. Can you do that for me?" Ren looks to Grun, every movement causing him some pain. But he is able to fight through it to speak.

"White Fang, invaded Amity during the singles rounds. Somehow… somehow they were moving Grimm around, attacking anyone they saw. Then the Atlas droids got here. We thought we had help, but for some reason, they turned on us, firing on any one they saw, be it Huntsman, student or even civilian. Once Ruby brought down the Generals flagship, they all shut down."

Grun growls at this information, muttering "Locus" to himself. He nods to Ren to continue. "We fought best we could, but Ozpin came and took Pyrrha away, so Jaune went with her. After a while though, we saw a rocket locker take off, and Jaune came flying in, glowing a bright light as he decapitated that Goliath over there."

Sounds of massive gunfire and screams of Grimm can be heard as Ren speaks. "He took off towards the tower after Ruby and Weiss. Coco, her partner and Neptune went to help him."

Grun nods before placing a hand on Ren's shoulder, "Thank you, Ren. Take a rest, you need it." Ren nods before leaning back against Nora, promptly falling asleep.

Grun turns to his teammate, asking her "What's their condition, Leere?" Leere turns to Grun, some blood on her hands. "They are pretty banged up. Blake had multiple cuts about her person, and a large stab wound in her gut. I was able to heal her best I could, but I couldn't do anything for the scarring."

Grun nods before he says, "And Yang?" He starts worrying more than before when she doesn't answer right away. "Leere…" he growls.

Leere turns to him, tears in her eyes. "Her arm is gone. It's been cut off above the elbow, Grun. I stopped the bleeding, but I can't grow limbs back. There's nothing I can do for her."

Grun steps forward, kneeling down to look, seeing that Leere was right, Yang's right arm was barely more than a stub. He growls in frustration before saying, "As long as she lives through this, we can figure something out."

Blitz and Macht came back over to Grun after investigating best they could. "The Goliath was beheaded completely," Macht starts off with. "I've never seen a cut so clean and precise before, especially not through a Goliath's armor and hide. It looked like it was done by a single weapon."

Grun nods to his team, saying, "That's because it was." Blitz looks to his leader before he says, "That's impossible! There isn't a material on this planet that could cut through BONE ARMOR so cleanly!"

Grun only shakes his head before he says, "There are factors at work here that none of you understand right now. Factors I'm not at liberty to discuss with you guys right now. Just please, trust me, I'll tell you when I can, but I cant at this moment."

Macht nods in understanding, though Blitz looks like he is ready to argue with Grun. But before he can, though, a loud, blood-curdling screech can be heard coming from the direction of Beacon Tower.

"Jaune!" Grun yells before he sprints towards the tower, Leere hot on his trail. As they arrive, they see Jaune and Weiss, the latter supporting the formers head in her lap. Grun sees Qrow leaning over Jaune, speaking to him.

"What happened," Grun says to Qrow. Qrow looks up and says, "Kid got bit by a Ground Dweller, and I'm not sure I have enough antivenom to counteract it." Leere steps forward, kneeling next to Jaune and places her hands on either side of the bite wound, gasping. "He's burning up, Grun. We won't be able to get enough antivenom in time." Grun frowns in concentration before he replied, "Do it." Leere nods before turning back to Jaune, concentrating her Aura into Jaune's blood.

Everybody is sitting with bated breath, waiting to see what she does. As she continues to concentrate, sweat starts forming on her brow, which Grun wipes off with a spare bandana.

Neptune steps forward as he says, "What's she-" the rest of his question is cut off as Grun literally grabs his face, his hand covering his mouth before he whispers to Neptune, trying to keep his voice calm and gentle.

"Sorry for the rough interruption," Grun whispers. "But Leere needs absolute concentration right now. She is trying to get the venom out of his blood." Neptune nods, prompting Grun to release him.

The Huntress with the handbag steps up and whispers, "Why would it be so hard to get the venom out of his body?" Grun looks at her and shakes his head.

"You misunderstand," Grun whispers back. "I said she has to get it out of his BLOOD first. Ground dweller venom is tricky, it doesn't just attack the body, it latches onto the blood at a cellular level, making the blood itself carry it throughout the body."

Grun looks to Leere, as a small stream of an evil glowing green starts to pour from Jaune's arm, which Leere has set on the ground to have gravity help work the venom away from Jaune.

"She has to physically separate the venom from every blood cell in Jaune's body. If she just tried to pull the venom straight out, it would take just as much blood with it in the process. That is why she needs the concentration."

After ten minutes of the venom pouring out to the ground, the flow finally stops. Jaune's breathing finally starts to even out and he seems to let out a sigh of relief. Grun kneels down and puts a hand on Jaune's forehead, feeling that his body temp is returning to normal.

"You got all the venom out, Leere. Well done. Thank you." Leere smiles before pulling several glass vials out of a pouch in her hip, using her Semblance to lift the venom from the ground, collecting it all into several small balls before carefully draining them into the vial, sealing each one with a cork stopper, and securing each stopper with twine.

"What are you doing?" Weiss asks. Leere finishes putting the vials into her pouch before she answers, "Ground Dweller venom can be processed into some of the strongest antivenom on Remnant. It is extremely rare to find such a large quantity of it, and in such a pure form as well."

Grun stands up before he looks around. "Weiss, the only people of your group I haven't seen are Pyrrha and Ruby. Where are they?" Weiss flinches before she points to the top of the tower, where it can be seen that Smaug has become frozen, much like a statue.

Grun frowns before he grabs Leere's hand, using his Semblance to reduce the gravity affecting the both of them before they both leap as hard as they can, easily flying part way up the tower, Grun latching a set of claws into the wall before flinging Leere farther up, the chains from the other set wrapped around her fist.

When she reaches the end of her chains, she drives one of her Sai into the wall as well, swinging her arm to fling Grun up to the top, where he uses the retraction mechanism to pull Leere up with him.

The scene that met them was disturbing. They find themselves staring in the maw of the frozen dragon, capture mid roar. The entire top floor is destroyed, signs of battle scarring every inch of the floor. Over by a small pool of blood and a couple broken arrows, Leere leans down and picks up a broken and melted Milo, the edges battered and warped. Akouo is lodged in a nearby wall.

Next to Milo, however, Leere lets out a gasp of concern, finding Pyrrha's headdress, tossed recklessly to the floor. "Grun" Leere whispers, "I think…I think Pyrrha's gone." Grun walks over to see what Leere sees, leaning down to pick up a broken arrow. As it fell apart and tinkled to the floor, Grun snarls. "Cinder was here. She must have succeeded in getting the rest of Amber's powers. Damn her."

Leere looks ready to start crying as she says, "Why? Sister, how could you have fallen so far?" Grun shakes his head before he scans the room, seeing what he missed the first time. "Ruby." He says before he quickly moves over to her, seeing her passed out on the floor.

Ruby's face is stained with tears, a look of pain plastered in her face. "She used her eyes." Grun says, causing Leere to gasp in shock. "But how? Her powers shouldn't have developed enough already, she's too young!"

Grun looks up, seeing all the destruction and Smaug stuck to the tower. "Trauma must have triggered her powers. But what could have caused it?" He looks to Leere, seeing the pieces of Milo and Akouo strapped to her back, as well as the Headdress attached to her hip.

"Oh no," he mutters. "She saw it happen." Leere covers her mouth, tears threatening to fall from her eyes. "She got here in time to see Pyrrha die. The poor thing, no one so young she have to see a friend die like that."

Grun shakes his head before he picks Ruby up bridal style, holding her against his chest tightly, doing his best not to jostle her or hurt her. He looks to Leere, saying, "We need to make sure everyone is far from here and safe. That is our priority right now. After that, we will do everything we can to find Cinder." Leere doesn't speak but she nods, knowing they have people to keep safe.

 _ **A few days later in a military hospital**_

Grun gets off his scroll before turning to the other conscious person in the room. "She said she's here, Qrow." His companion doesn't respond, only taking a swig from his Flask. Before Grun can say anything to him, a woman with hair white as snow gently opens the door.

It'd be easy to mistake her for her a Schnee if not for her dark complexion and her wilder hairstyle. Her clothes consist of a simple blue and dark brown sundress, etched through with white tribal stripes. Her feet are covered by open toed leather sandals and around her neck is a large crystal hanging from a thin, metallic looking cable.

"Grun" she says, a heavy accent giving her an exotic lilt to her speech. "Thank you for calling me. What happened?" Grun sighs heavily before he says, "Qrow, Kida, I think it finally happened."

Qrow's face is quickly covered by a scowl, while Kida, Jaune's mother, is openly expressing shock and fear on her face. "You…you mean?"

"Yes" Grun says, "It would appear that Jaune has, at the very least, partially awoken his powers of the Star Knights."

Qrow stares down at the unconscious Jaune, noting the pained expression on his face. "How is this possible? He wasn't supposed to harness it until Jonah unlocked it."

Grun laughs bitterly, "He turned eighteen last week. His powers were unlocked on that day. But even that shouldn't have been enough to USE them yet. There was something more. Something, or someone, was enough of an influence on him to make him unconsciously call upon his powers."

Grun sighs, "He had a woman who was willing to lay down her life to keep him safe, but he didn't feel worthy of her affection."

"That Nikos girl?" Kida asks. Grun nods before Kida continues. "I read about her, saw her fight in the tournaments. She was damn good. But I think that was what kept him from trying with her. Try as we might, me, Jonah, his sisters, NONE of us could drag Jaune out of his spiral of self-depreciation. No matter what he excelled at, it was never good enough for Jaune."

Grun grunts before responding, "In all the time I tried to train him in his hand to hand, he showed nothing but frustration at his perceived lack of progress. What he lacked in physical strength then, he MORE than made up for with tenacity and quick thinking. Not to mention his footwork was world class. He could put the best boxers to shame with that alone."

Grun shakes his head, "But he didn't understand playing to your strengths. The boy wanted bulk, all muscle and no brains to go with it, that damned 'Ideal Knight' Ideology his grandfather put into his head from those stories." Grun sighs as he turns back to the two.

"But we've gotten off topic." Grun says, "We need to discuss his training." Kida shakes her head as she stands by her son. "We can't train him. We can't even TELL him because of Jonah. You and I both swore to Jonah we would wait until he told Jaune about the Star Knights. Now, I don't even know if Jonah will ever even get the chance."

Kida reaches down, brushing some hair from his swear soaked brow. "My baby boy, he will never understand the power he has tapped into, because his father IS NOT HERE!" Kida growls this last part out, the finger nails of her other hand digging into her palm, close to drawing blood.

"I'll tell him" Qrow says as he takes a swig from his flask. "I'll tell him everything I know of the Star Knights" Kida stands and says, "It's the same problem. We CANNOT break an oath we swore to Jonah."

Qrow smiled widely at Kida, "I never made an Oath. Jonah told me everything there is about the Star Knights. He made me Swear to tell Jaune if he ever couldn't tell him himself."

Grun smiles as he says, "Good, I had hoped he made plans for such. Because we need Jaune's power, now more than ever; with Smaug on the loose, we need every edge we can get."

Qrow speaks out at this, "He is frozen on top of the Tower so, for now, he wont be a problem." Grun turns back to Qrow, a determined look on his face, "We both have seen what the powers of the Silver eyes do, and THAT is not it. For NOW, he is contained, yes. But we cannot assume it is forever. We need to prepare."

Grun turns to look down the hall, Yang laying in bed with Blake hovering over her. He can hear Weiss pacing back and forth in Ruby's room, hoping she'll wake up. "This battle is far from over, my friends. And it is still just the beginning of war. One we CANNOT lose. So we need to prepare."

Kida turns to Grun, standing as she still has a worried look on her face. "I don't like the circumstances, but you are right, Grun. Jaune must prepare. We ALL must prepare. Qrow, do not hold back a single bit of info that will help my son." Kida leans over and kisses Jaune's forehead, a small smile briefly crossing Jaune's face.

"Grun, you have helped my family more than I ever had any right to ask of one so young. But, please, if you could indulge a worried mother's selfish request one more time? Watch over my boy. Do your best to keep him safe."

Grun nods to Kida before he speaks, "I cannot promise to be by his side at all times. I have my own mission, and I recently discovered it is even more tied into our problems than I first thought. But I will do all I can to make sure Jaune is protected. Either by his friends or his own strength, but I swear that I will watch over him."

Kida smiles before she places a small, motherly kiss on Grun's cheek, whispering "Thank you, Grun," as she walked out the door.

As the two men in the room watch her leave, Qrow asks Grun, "How long will you stay?" Grun frowns as he says, "My team and I leave tomorrow. Some of the Fang that were involved in the attack gave us the location of an outpost that might bare info we need. I will say my goodbyes tonight," Grun looks to Jaune. "To those that I can. We shouldn't be gone more than a few days, hopefully we'll be back before Jaune wakes up."

Qrow only nods before he sets back down, waving Grun off. "Go say your goodbyes then. I'll watch over the kid."

Grun claps a hand on Qrow's shoulder as he walks out, "You're a good man, Birdbrain, no matter what anyone says, especially yourself." Qrow knocks Grun's hand away, but he cannot keep the small smile from his face, muttering a quiet, "Whatever."

Grun walks out of the room, walking down to Yang's room. He frowns, noticing that Blake is no longer in the room. As he was walking out, however, he sees Blake slip into the nearby stairwell. He follows her inside, seeing her sit on the top step, crying.

"Blake?" Grun calls out to her. Hearing her name causes Blake to jump and spin around, reaching for her weapon on her back. Grun sees the tears streaming down her face, before she turns back around, frantically wiping her face with her arm.

Grun steps forward to stand next to Blake, giving her some personal space. "How's Yang doing?" Grun asks Blake. She sniffles a little before answering.

"The doctors-*cough*-the doctors said that physically she is fine. Other than her arm," Blake stops as she speaks of Yang's arm, choking up at the memory. Grun reaches down and places a hand on her shoulder, which she covers with her own hand. Taking a breath, she continues. "They said that her Aura healed all her other minor wounds from the fighting. They don't expect there to be any lasting damage to her."

Blake swings her other arm and slams it against the handrail, causing several of the posts to bend and twist. "No lasting damage," she growls, "Except for the fact she's missing _**A FUCKING ARM!"**_

Grun squeezes her shoulder, speaking softly. "Easy there, Kitten. Take a breath. You need to calm down." Grun realized that may not have been the best way to say that because Blake immediately slapped his hand from her shoulder before turning to look at Grun, eyes blazing with rage and pain.

"Calm down?! _**CALM DOWN?!**_ My partner is in there missing her arm because she tried to protect me from my ex, our school is destroyed, my leader is UNCONCIOUS, and you want me to calm down?!"

Blake's head suddenly spun to her right, quickly followed by the sound of flesh striking flesh. She slowly covered her cheek as she turns her head back to look back at Grun, his hand still raised and tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"Yes, I need you to calm down, Blake. Because I don't trust myself to keep _**MY**_ anger in check if you aren't level headed enough to help me." Grun's hand starts to tremble as he drops it to his side, sitting down on the step that Blake vacated a moment ago.

Blake sat next to him, throwing her arms around him, Grun doing the same to her. "I'm sorry Grun, I shouldn't have taken my frustrations out on you."

"I'm sorry too, Blake." He responds with. "I shouldn't have struck you. I let my own frustrations get the better of me."

The two sat there holding each other for a few minutes, before they finally let go, looking at each other. "What are we going to do, Grun?" Blake finally whispers. "Everything is gone. Beacon, Vale…Pyrrha."

"We need to find out WHO was responsible for this. We need to find out who orchestrated it, HOW they put it all together, and we need to figure out how we can stop them."

"The woman who killed Pyrrha? I think she said her name was Cinder. She had a couple teammates, Emerald, Mercury, I think. And that little multicolored psychopath that was always with Roman."

"Neo." Grun supplied. "Yes, we've crossed paths before." Blake waited for Grun to go on, but seeing him stay quiet, Blake continued.

"The White Fang were there. They were letting Grimm loose, everywhere. And they were led by.." Grun turns to look at Blake.

"They were led by?" Blake gently wipes the fresh tears falling from her eyes. "Adam. Adam was there. He was the one who hurt me, who stabbed me in the stomach, who cut off…"

Grun slowly shakes his head as he sighs heavily. "How far the mighty have fallen, " he quietly mumbles to himself. Blake ignores him as she keeps speaking, "He said that everything that happened that day was because of me. That all the death and destruction were because I left him."

Blake wraps her arms around herself and starts shivering, "He said he would destroy everything I love. Every person I hold dear, he would find them and kill them slowly. He said he would make sure that they knew that _ **I**_ was the reason they had to suffer."

Grun sits up straight and says, "Surely you don't believe what he said. Everything that he and his people did were by _**THEIR**_ choices, not yours. _**They**_ decided to decimate Beacon and Vale, _**They**_ decided that equality wasn't enough anymore and wanted the destruction of humanity. Not a _ **SINGLE**_ one of those decisions were anything **CLOSE** to being your fault. And don't let the demented ramblings of a madman convince you otherwise."

Blake looks into Grun's eyes as she says, "But if I had stayed, I might have changed Adam's mind. I might have.."

"You might have become that monster's breeding stock, chained and used to supply his twisted desire for 'perfect Faunus'." Grun interrupts her.

Blake reels back in shock, before she whispers, "He wouldn't have done that." Grun scoffs before he says, "Just like he wouldn't have led an army to destroy Vale and slaughter innocents?" Blake turns away, knowing that she couldn't argue his point.

Blake stood up, ready to turn away and walk off as she says, "I'm going away, Grun. I'm going to leave and try to keep Adam away from my team." Grun laughs softly as he says, "Well that has to be the single stupidest idea I've ever heard."

Blake spun back around, glaring at her brother. "What am I supposed to do, Grun? He said he would hurt everyone I love! He would destroy everything I care about! What do you suggest I do besides lead him away from his targets?!"

Grun surged to his feet, meeting Blake's glare with his own burning stare. Blake is shocked, having never seen him look like this before. And she is a little afraid; being reminded just how much larger Grun is than her.

" _ **You fight, that's what you do."**_ Grun growls menacingly. "You fight that bastard with every fiber of your being. You do _**EVERYTHING**_ within your power to protect the ones you love. Running away does nothing for your loved ones but leave them to the mercy of your enemy. You take away the **ONE** thing that might save their lives."

Blake shakes her head as she says, "You saw what he did! How easily he took out both Yang and I! How am I supposed to stand up to something like that?"

Grun's hand shoots forward, causing Blake to flinch before she feels her hand covered by his. She raises her eyes to Grun's seeing the former anger completely gone. "You keep trying. You, Blake, are a Belladonna. Your parents have fought tooth and nail for equality since before you were born. Are you really willing to let everything your parents have fought, bled and cried for to fade away because you were scared?"

Blake looks down before she turns her hand to grasp his, holding it tightly. "I'm scared, Grun. I'm scared that whatever I do won't be enough. How do I know that I won't fail?"

Grun pulls Blake against him and hugs her, feeling her hesitate before she returned the gesture. "You may never know." Blake's breathe hitches before Grun continued. "But that doesn't mean you can't try. You have to do whatever possible to stack the deck in your favor. And that includes sticking with your team."

Grun laughs quietly as he says, "Hell, as much as I'm shocked to say that Schnee girl of yours has **MORE** than earned my respect. When she heard her blowhard father tell her to leave with him, she told him to shove off. She **REFUSED** to leave her partner's side, even if it meant angering the, arguably, most influential man in the world."

Grun then smiles down at his sister teasingly, "Are you going to tell me that a _**SCHNEE**_ has more spine than you?" Blake smiles back at Grun before she says, "Hell no. I am going to stay with Yang and everyone until they heal. Then we will start training again, no matter how hard it has to be."

Grun nods, "Good. You take good care of your team, Blake. Times are gonna get bad here soon."

Blake turns to Grun before she asks, "What happened at Beacon, Grun? The flash of light at the top of the tower; the light that kept surrounding Jaune; Jaune and Ruby are both unconscious. It's…it's crazy, Grun."

Blake is looking at her brother, begging him to give her answers. Unbeknownst to her, Grun is having a debate in his head, weighing the good and the bad about telling her.

What finally makes him cave is the tears and frustration building up in her eyes. He finally sighed, thinking to himself, 'Ozpin, I hope I'm doing the right thing here,'

He sighs and says, "Sis, what's your favorite fairy tail?"

 _ **The next morning.**_

GMBL are standing around Jaune's bed, hoping to see him wake up. Sadly, the only difference they can see is that he no longer has a pained expression on his face.

Grun turns to Qrow before he they left, "You'll stay with him until he wakes up?" Qrow silently nods his head before he speaks. "Yeah, with Ruby and Yang being transported to their dad, I can focus on keeping an eye on Jaune."

Grun nodded and said, "Blake and Weiss are here too, so let them help, get some sleep. You've been awake since before we got here."

Qrow laughed before he said, "You think this old man needs a couple kid's help to watch over a boy?" Grun smiled as he said "Didn't say you needed it, but it might be nice to catch a nap while you have the help."

Qrow shakes his head but he says, "I'll think about it." Grun walks over and holds a hand out, waiting for Qrow to take it. They both shake firmly after they clasp hands, with Grun saying "I owe you a drink next time we meet."

Qrow laughs loudly as he says, "With me playing babysitter for you, you owe me a keg." Grun just chuckles as he and his team walk out of the room.

"Well boss," Blitz says, "Where to now?" Grun drops his smile and says, "Ilia sent me some info about another outpost the next town over. We'll go and see if we can find any info about their future plans, then we come back to check on Jaune."

After a couple days of searching, and eventually destroying, GMBL makes its way back to the outskirts of Vale, heading back to the hospital to check on Jaune. Upon arrival, however, they find that he has been discharged already.

As they walk out the door of the building, they hear the engines of a Bullhead fire up, causing them to take off running towards the landing pads. Unfortunately, they arrive just in time to see the landing ramp finish closing, catching just a glimpse of golden blonde before it rose up and took off, leaving the group to walk over to their friends.

"Damn it Jaune," Grun growls out. Before he can say more, he is suddenly held tightly by two sets of arms. Looking down, he sees a bow sitting atop a mass of black hair and a mop of orange hair pressed against his sides.

"Grun" Blake says as she looks up, tears filling her eyes. "I tried to stop him. We all tried to keep him with us, but he wouldn't listen to us." Nora looked up as well, tears falling freely from her own turquoise eyes, "He left us. He left his team because he thought he couldn't protect us." Nora said through her tears.

Grun sighed softly before he spoke. "That boy definitely inherited his father's bullheadedness." Grun reached down to pet Blake's and Nora's heads. "Don't beat yourself up, Blake. There isn't a thing you could have done to change his mind."

"And Nora," Grun says as he smiles to the little Valkyrie, "Don't worry too much about Jaune. If he went where I suspect he went, he'll be fine. Coral always did her best to protect Jaune."

Before anyone can respond to him, Grun says, "Well, we need to get some rest. Let's go find a hotel or something." Everyone nodded as they walked away, Blake staying by Weiss and Ren staying with Nora.

Later that night, as everyone was laying in their rooms in a rundown motel, Grun sits up in his bed, trying not to wake up Blake, who decided she needed to share a bed with Grun to sleep soundly.

As he stood up and went to the door, he grabbed his jacket and his scroll. Standing outside by an alley, he lights up a cigarette, slowly drawing in a lungful, before letting it flow out slowly.

"You told us you were quitting, Grun." He turns his head to look at his team standing a few feet from him, Leere glaring at the stick between his fingers. He took another hit before answering, "This was the last one in my pack and I'm not buying anymore. What are you all doing up, anyway?"

Blitz stretched his back and said, "Probably same reason you are. Can't turn the brain off long enough to sleep. Trying to think of anywhere we might be able to get answers."

Grun finishes off his smoke before throwing it down on the ground, stomping it out. He looks up and says, "I know, we've hit a wall everywhere we've went. Whoever is in charge of this, they are damned smart. Compartmentalizing information, hell, compartmentalizing entire _**factions**_ just to keep everyone from seeing the whole picture, it's insane."

Before anymore could be said, though, Grun happens to hear something bounce off of a nearby wall in the alley. After a quick hand gesture, GMBL silently scaled the walls of the alley to make it to the rooftops. As they looked back down, the see two White Fang member quietly walking down where they just stood, not giving indication that they heard them.

" _Is that…_ " Grun thinks to himself. He looks more closely to the white and red robes the two are wearing, before he focuses on the large red fox ears poking through the hood of one of them.

"The Albain Brothers," Grun whispers. Macht looks closer to confirm what his leader saw. "What the hell are they doing here?" Macht asked him. "Whatever the reason is, it can't be good. We need to follow them."

All four shared a look before they quietly followed the two Fang members, hoping they will be able to learn something new. After nearly twenty minutes of twisting paths and backtracking, they finally came up to a large fountain in a section of the city that has been leveled during the attack, leaving a few shells of buildings on the streets surrounding it.

As the brothers stopped for a moment, they quietly whistled a tune, too low for humans to hear, but Grun could hear it clearly. When the tune was done, the two were quickly surrounded by nearly two hundred White Fang grunts, all holding their weapons, but not pointing them at the Albions.

"Brother Adam," the taller one said, "We agreed to meet you out of good faith, but you show up with a force like this?"

The crowd slowly parts to allow seven individuals walk to the brothers. The leader being a tall, slender man dressed almost solely in black, with a large red rose printed across the back of his shirt.

Grun is quietly growling, fists clenched hard enough to draw blood from his palms. As he is about to rise up and attack Adam, Leere and Blitz grab his arms and keep him on the roof they are laying on.

" _ **LET…ME…GO…**_ " He quietly growls to his teammates. Leere is the first to speak, whispering, "Grun use your head! They easily outnumber us forty-to-one! Even if you **could** get to Adam, you'll be too worn down to do anything about it!"

Grun stares at her another few moments before he takes a deep breathe, letting the tension bleed away as he lies back down onto his stomach. "You're right, I let my temper get the better of me. Sorry."

Leere and Blitz nod before they all focus on the gathering once more. Adam and his entourage have made it to the brothers and were speaking.

"Corsac, Fennec, forgive the show of force, but after the human's killed our last lieutenant, we saw fit to be a little more paranoid of sudden meetings."

Grun looked confused as he heard this, " _Human's? Human's didn't plant that bomb,"_ he thought to himself. Before he can ponder more, the Brothers speak again.

"Think nothing of it, Brother. One never can be too cautious, especially after we lost dear Grun. But, we called you here for a reason. We are needing to move ahead with the next part of the plan."

"Ghira" Adam spoke softly. "He hasn't fallen in line with Sienna Khan yet?" Corsac shakes his head before responding, "No, and it doesn't seem like he will anytime soon. This is unacceptable. We Fang must be united against the Humans if we hope to succeed. And though he doesn't lead us anymore, Belladonna still holds a great amount of sway over most of our people."

Adam clenches his fist as he says, "What would you have me do? We have given him every opportunity to side with us, but he cannot see our cause is just."

Fennec answers him this time, "If he cannot see reason, then you must _**force**_ him to see it. Challenge him if you must. If he loses, he will side with us."

Adam's shoulders are shaking as he says, "The man was a father to so many of us. He protected us, he gave us a home, a family. And you want me to rip everything he worked for from him?!"

Corsac speaks again, placating as he says, "He laid the foundation, yes. But he stagnated. We need to keep going, to make this world a world for Faunus."

Adam sighs as he says, "I will have no part of this. Ghira was like a father to me, and after Grun's murder and Blake abandoning me, I will not be the cause of the end of the only family I have left. Find another way."

Corsac nodded as he said, "Very well, a few months delay is insignificant in the long run. What shall you do with your Loyalists?"

Grun took a quick intake of breath, hearing that name again actually making him worry about what would have happened if his team hadn't stopped him a moment ago.

"Shit, the Loyalists are here?!" Leere's eyebrows lower in contemplation before she says, "I've never heard of the loyalists, who are they?"

Grun shakes his head before he says, "I'll tell you guys about them later! We need to hear what they are saying." As the group focuses back onto Adam and his crew, they see that they are all separating, having concluded their conversation.

"Damn, we'll have to follow them." After weighing his options, he says, "We'll follow the Albains, they are less likely to notice us." After receiving a nod from his team, the four take off after the brothers.

"Well that went well, don't you agree, brother?" Fennec says to Corsac. Corsac responds with, "Exceedingly so, dear brother. Although, I couldn't help but notice a…reluctance within Brother Adam."

Fennec sighs as he speaks. "Yes, I noticed this as well. It seems that even though we are so close to our goals, Young Adam still cannot bring himself to kill Master Ghira. A shame, really. He has so much promise for one so young."

Grun can almost hear the grin in Corsac's voice as he responds. "Mayhaps we should help Adam in that regard." Fennec stops walking as he turns to his brother before he says, "And how shall we do that?"

Corsac turns to face Fennec while he says, "A simple thing, really. Master Ghira doesn't know that we do not serve him anymore; we have gone to great lengths to assure this. Why not use that? We can ask for a meeting with him, as an offering of peace. If memory serves, he was always fond of Mistralian tea. Perhaps we should bring him some that is a… special brew, shall we say?"

Fennec's face lights up with glee as he says, "Oh yes, dear brother. A splendid idea. Once Master Ghira is gone, there shall be none left to oppose us. His wife and daughter shall be too busy mourning to fight us then."

Corsac smiled as they continued down the alley. "It's also good to know that Adam hasn't discovered the truth about Grun yet." His brother quietly chuckled, "I think it's safe to say that the Hot head will be quick to call off this war we wage if he did discover the truth. The death of Grun and his human bitch were the whole reason he agreed to this plan of ours, after all."

Grun could feel his heart hammering in his chest as he heard this. His breathing became quick and shallow and his vision was tinged in a red shroud. " _ **These….CREATURES planned my wife and I's assassination. They wanted us dead so they could provoke the White Fang, destroy Beacon, and have my Father Killed?!"**_ Grun was doing everything he could to not jump down there and eviscerate them at that moment.

As he turned to his team he saw they were not fairing much better. Each of them had their weapons drawn, their blades shaking with barely suppressed rage. Before they could move, Grun held out a hand, stopping them from attacking.

" _WHY?!"_ Hissed to her leader. " _Those fuckers are the ones who had Arianna killed, and almost killed you! Why shouldn't we go down there and tear them apart?!"_

"Because," Grun growled back, "As much as I hate to admit it, those two are brilliant tacticians. They LIVE by their agenda and if it were to deviate, they most likely have no less than four back up plans in store should they disappear."

He sighs deeply as he watches the brothers continue walking away, oblivious to the fight they barely avoided. "As loathe as I am to admit it, we have to let them go for now. We know what their plan is, we know roughly when it will happen, and we know we can stop it."

He turns back to his team, staring them in the eyes as they return their weapons. "For now, we fall back and prepare, we make sure that the Belladonnas are safe."

As the four of them walk into their hotel room, they are startled to see BRWN are awake, waiting for them. "Uh…Hey guys," Grun slowly says. "So…you're up."

Blake looks to Grun, clearly unamused. "Where did you all go?" Grun could hear the hiss permeating her voice, paling slightly at this. " _Oh sweet Oum,"_ he thinks to himself. " _She has Kali's scolding voice!"_

Grun smiles weakly as he says, "Would you believe a really long smoke break?" He starts sweating a little as Blake's eyes narrow, "You told me you had quit."

Grun starts stammering at this, "I-I did. That was just the last one I had in my very last pack. I'm not picking up another one, I swear." Blake doesn't look any happier as she says, "It shouldn't have taken you nearly an hour to finish one cigarette then."

Grun sighs as he says, "Alright, alright, let me get a few things ready. We need to leave soon." After nearly ten minutes of packing equipment and pulling up folders for the rest of GMBL to look over.

"So," Grun started with. "We have learned that Adam Taurus is in the city, and he has his Loyalists here with him." Everybody openly jerked at hearing about Adam, but Blake turned white as a sheet upon hearing about the Loyalists.

"You're certain they are all here?!" Grun nodded as he said, "Yes, I saw them myself. They were all meeting near the unoccupied zone."

Weiss interrupts, "Wait, Who on Remnant are these 'Loyalists' you mentioned? I've never hears of them before."

Grun shook his head as he said, "You wouldn't have. They are the White Fang's strongest enforcers. They work exclusively for Adam hunting down traitors and deserters." Grun pressed the screen on his scroll a few times before Leere, Blitz and Macht's scrolls lit up and showed several files.

Weiss Ren and Nora all looked along with one of their scrolls, Blake already knowing this information. The first file showed a person with long, blood red hair, dark red glasses accented with white skulls, and a wide, happy smile showing off sharp, pointed shark teeth.

"This is Grelle Sutcliff. Shark Faunus and professional psychopath. He is obsessed with the color of Blood, and his weapon shows it." Another picture shows up that shows a large, evil looking chainsaw, red stains covering almost all of it, save for the handles.

"His weapon is specially made to withstand bullets, blades and Aura. He uses it to slowly tear his enemies apart, spreading their blood as far as possible." Everybody quickly turned green at the thought as Grun continued. The next picture showed a slightly older man, his skin a deep tan and his hair a dark black. He is seen wearing a black vest with a white dress-shirt, dress pants, and formal shoes.

"This is Bradley King. Short sword specialist. He wears the eye patch to hide his only Faunus trait, a slit iris from his cheetah heritage. He uses twin short swords alongside side his Semblance, 'Flash Step'. He can momentarily move himself so fast it almost looks like he teleports. He can easily outmatch Ruby, at least in short bursts."

The third picture was strange as the man in it looked like a pirate of sorts. "This is Drake Diez. He fights using dual battle axes and he is deadly with them. He was a member of Vacuo's Royal Navy until a human officer made it his mission to have him court martialed. He's a Peacock Faunus, which he said was the reason for his…flamboyant manner of dress."

The next picture showed a man even older than Bradley, his skin tanned to a dark leathery color, his right eye missing with a large scar marking its passing. He also wore a large bone crown on his head.

"Here we have Baraggan Louisenbairn, the self proclaimed 'King' of the loyalists. He is a master tactician, which is the major reason he uses his huge battle axe, since, in his words, 'what man would expect someone using such a cumbersome weapon to be six steps ahead of him in the battle?'"

Upon opening the fifth picture, the are met with a man short of stature, but boasting nothing but solid, bulging muscle. Like the last man, his skin was tanned and he was missing an eye, but where as Baraggan held a sneer of contempt, this man looked gentler, softer, almost fatherly.

"This is Zappa, no last name recorded. From the stories I've heard of him, he was once Mistrals greatest Blacksmith, able to create weapons so complex that local governments have nearly bankrupted themselves trying to recreate them. He is a master with the War Hammer he wields, having yet to face an equal."

The final picture showed a relatively normal looking boy wearing a simple t-shirt, basketball shorts and a neck brace. But upon closer inspection, they saw that his eyes were a solid, pitch black. Sclera, Iris, pupils, all were the same deep, shimmering Black, as if staring into the deepest pocket of space.

"Finally we have Mitsuru Bandou, the team's hand-to-hand specialist. His only weapon are his fist and specially made Knuckle Dusters. They are said to be made of the only material able to withstand the force of his punches; Earth Dust infused Titanium-Cobalt alloy. His pure physical strength is said to be unmatched, and I've personally seen him punch the head off of a Goliath with a single punch. He is so strong, he earned the nickname, 'Behemoth'."

Grun crosses his arms as he said, "These six individuals make up 'The Loyalists', answerable only to Adam Taurus." All of the people in his group look to Grun shocked, and in several cases, very much afraid.

"How are we supposed to fight these monsters?!" Blitz yells out, followed by many of the rest nodding in agreement. Grun shakes his head and says, "We don't. We avoid them at all costs."

Seeing that they are about to argue, Grun raises a hand before saying, "I'm not saying we ignore them if they attack someone, but we cannot actively search them out. You know how strong I am," Grun says this as humbly as he can, knowing how arrogant it can sound.

"But even I would struggle to take on ONE of these six, and taking on all six would be paramount to a slow suicide." Ren stopped Grun to say, "But Blake said you were the strongest fighter the White Fang ever produced."

"Exactly." Grun said, but he continued seeing how confused they were. "I was the strongest the White Fang _produced_ , as in the White Fang trained me, made me what I am."

Grun waves to the pictures of the six, saying, " _They_ were so strong that the White Fang _sought them out_ to recruit them. They were equal to or beyond my level of strength before they even KNEW about the White Fang."

Ren looked like he was about to be ill before Nora reached over and took his hand in hers. He smiled to her before Blake said, "So what is the plan?"

Grun smiled gently before he said, "We're going to Menagerie. There are something's I need to discuss with our father. But we will stop by Patch first, let you four stay with Yang and Ruby after we make sure they are alright."

Blake looked ready to argue, but Weiss put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it gently and shaking her head.

Blake sighs before she says, "Fine, I need to make sure my team is alright." Earning a smile from Weiss she smiles back to her. "Alright, everyone." Grun says, "It's time we got some sleep, we have a long journey ahead of us tomorrow."

Everybody nodded in agreement before piling into their respective beds, letting Grun turn the lights out. _"Yes,"_ he thought to himself, " _It's going to be one hell of a journey."_

 ** _Hey everybody, Nightengale here with a short afterward. I just wanted to clear up any doubt some people may have. These six individuals are the same six Jaune fought in RoaSK in Cinders spire. Since we never got much chance to see who they were, Nickshephard and I decided to give them names, descriptions and a little back story this time around, just to flesh them out a little more. Also, yes the characters are people from other works, none of which I own. Some will be obvious, some a little more obscure. But there is one in the group, my personal favorite, that if anyone can figure out where they are from without looking them up, you will be my new favorite person!...After my wife…and my kids….and my family…and my friends…..Ok, you'll be my new favorite person who isn't family or a personal friend! That's not too bad…..right? Anyway, Thanks again everyone for reading and I'll see you all in the next chapter. This is Nightengale, signing off._**


	8. Chapter 8

_**Hey everybody, Nightengale here. Here it finally is, chapter 8. Sorry it took so long, if anyone is interested, I added an AN at the end of the chapter telling what happened. Without further ado, here is the next chapter,**_

After a few weeks of land travelling, and a short boat ride, GMBL and BRWN has finally arrived at Patch, hopeful to meet up with their friends. GMBL has subtly encircled BRWN, conversing with their companions to keep their focus off of the fact while also constantly watching their surroundings. Grun is talking with Blake about what they learned in Vale.

"I don't understand, Grun," Blake said to her brother. "Why couldn't we just take a Bullhead here?"

Grun shook his head as he responded. "After what the Fang caused in Vale, there wasn't a chance of anyone allowing a group with a couple Faunus onto a bullhead. Especially if they did background checks on us and saw that we are both ex-Fang members." Grun laughs mirthlessly as he continues. "We would be _**LUCKY**_ if they executed us on the spot."

Grun subtly looks back to the group behind them, looking to the rest of Blake's temporary teammates, "Add into that, two orphans with no backgrounds, and an Atlas citizen, a Schnee at that, and it is a potential Dust keg of distrust and hate."

Blake sighs as she nods her head. "Where did we go so wrong? The White Fang were supposed to bring us together, not put us at each other's throats."

Grun placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing gently. "It wasn't anything we could have done. If a cause goes so long without results, they can turn to more….drastic measures to get them. As much as I hate the analogy, if one backs an animal into a corner, there is no telling what it will do. And that was what the Fang has become, an animal fighting its way out of a corner."

Blake places her hand over Grun's as she says "Maybe, maybe there was something we didn't see." She looks to Grun, seeing him shake his head.

"Blake," he says. "You can't keep trying to carry the sins of the White Fang like they were your own. You were a single member, and you were already at odds with the former and current leaders. There isn't anything you could have done, so stop blaming yourself."

Blake shook her head and huffed, walking farther ahead of the group. Grun sighed heavily, breathing in deeply, absorbing the scents of crisp Autumn air of the woods. Closing his eyes, he focuses his senses on his ears, listening to the whispering rustles of the leaves, the singing chirps of the birds. As he walks for a moment like this, trying to clear his head, he smells and hears someone come up to his side.

The pounding of the person's heart, giving away their obvious worry, the smells of ice, snow and Dust clinging to them, and the brisk, purposeful clack of heels against cobblestone makes it obvious to the Faunus that the heiress was in his presence.

A short huff of indignation precedes her saying to Grun, "You'd think that she was the only one having it tough right now, with how she's carrying herself." Grun barely keeps himself from snapping at Weiss, reminding himself that she was different from the other Schnees, that she was not the same as her _Father_.

"She blames herself." He slowly says to her, finally opening his eyes, though he doesn't look to her. "The White Fang, Vale….Adam." He whispers this last part. "She thinks that there must have been something she could have done to prevent it, something she could have done to change Adam's mind at least."

Weiss looks up to him, seeing his eyes constantly jumping around their surroundings, never laying in a single spot for longer than a moment. " _Even surrounded by his team and friends_ " She thinks to herself, " _He still scans for hostiles and danger. Does he even realize that he does it? Or is it purely second nature?"_

She scoffs as she says, "Of course there isn't anything she could have done. She's a Huntress in Training, not a miracle worker." Catching him glaring at her in annoyance, she says "Surely you don't disagree with me?"

Grun snorts and says, "Oum no, but you **REALLY** need to work on your abrasive and condescending attitude. That's your teammate your talking about, your friend. Not to mention my sister. Just pisses me off hearing you talk about her like that."

"EXCUSE ME?!" Weiss shrieks. "Where do you get off calling me abrasive, you brute?" Grun ignores her outburst and keeps walking forward, until he feels a small hand grasp the back of his shirt, holding it tightly. He turns back towards her, seeing her face glow red and her arm shaking.

"Don't ignore me, Grun! I am speaking to you!" Grun huffs and turns away again, letting his arms slip free from the dark green over shirt, walking away in a lighter green sleeveless shirt. Weiss is dumbfounded, left to clutch at the limp fabric before taking off after him, having to jog to keep up with his longer strides.

"You call me abrasive and just walk off like I'm not even worth talking to!" Grun keeps walking, but she can see his wolf ears twitching. "At least I have the courtesy to continue a conversation that I started!"

Weiss plans to continue, but suddenly Grun whirls around, staring at her with narrowed eyes. While his face is mostly impassive, she can see fire in his dark green eyes. Before she has a chance to react, he activates one of his gauntlets and plunges it into the ground at her feet.

Without breaking eye contact with her, he slowly stands back up, pulling an adolescent Creep from the ground, its chest and legs skewered by the long claws on his weapon.

"I didn't stop talking because I was ignoring you." Grun says, calmly grabbing the tail end of the Grimm with his free hand before giving a sudden pull. The creature splits in half, both sides disintegrating into smoke as he continues.

"I stopped talking because I was concentrating on catching the Grimm that _**your**_ shrieking woke up. Damn thing was tunneling under us and made a beeline for the only one of us that was alone." He nods his head in the direction of Blake, whom had continued on as if nothing had happened.

"H-How..?" Weiss stammers. "How did you know it was there?" Weiss was so shocked about how close a Grimm was and she had no idea, that she didn't notice that Grun took back his shirt, slipping it back on.

"My semblance…is a little tricky to explain. I call it Gravity manipulation, but it isn't the whole story. It has a couple uses, one of which is relative gravity, which allows me to sense the minute gravity fields that all things on Remnant possess. Humans, Grimm, weapons. If it has mass, it has gravity, no matter how small. And I can feel it."

Weiss was utterly shocked hearing this. But before she can speak, Grun continues. "And to clarify, I wasn't saying that to be an asshole. I don't much care if you think I am or not, but I digress. What I was trying to say is that you slip back into your Schnee upbringing when you become worried. You fall back into your cold persona to try to hide your worry, like your concerned that you caring will be seen as weakness. But you have to remember; you are among friends, teammates. You NEED to be able to share your worries with them. A single person cannot hold the weight of the world by themselves, they will eventually be crushed."

Both Grun and Weiss look forward to see Blake standing by a tree along the path, her scroll out as she tries to find a signal. "Blake has one of the biggest hearts this side of Menagerie. She tries to hide how much she hurts, she tries to quietly bare the burden alone. But anyone who knows her can see her heart breaking whenever she sees or hears of people suffering. It doesn't matter to her if it's Human or Faunus, she weeps for them equally. She truly wants what's best for everyone, but she gets frustrated because she can't find the answer."

Weiss looks back to Grun, seeing a gentle misting of his eyes before he blinks it away, pulling the pain evident on his face back under control. Weiss smiles gently at him before saying, "Looks like you need to take your own advice, Grun. Isn't the strong silent type a little over done?"

Grun huffs in annoyance at her, but he lets a small half grin slip out. "Perhaps, but there is a time and place for pain and heartache, and the middle of Grimm territory is hardly either of those things. Once we are someplace safe, I'll happily let go and pour out my emotions."

Weiss lets a small giggle out before she says, "It would seem that Blake didn't just take her ability to keep to herself from her big brother. Looks like she got her big heart from him as well."

Grun growls quietly, muttering a quiet "Schnees" as if it were a curse. Though Weiss couldn't help but see the tips of his human ears turn a little redder. Weiss looks ready to comment on it, but she is interrupted by a pink blur flying into her vision.

Looking up, she sees Nora sitting up on Grun's shoulders, holding her hands over her eyes like binoculars as she shouts, "Cabin Ahoy!"

Grun laughs as he keeps walking forward, seemingly unbothered by the extra weight on his shoulders, "Thank you Captain Nora, but you may want to be more mindful about jumping so high in the air when wearing a skirt. Don't want to be giving anyone a show."

Grun turns around, not even breaking stride as he sees Ren purposefully looking away from Nora, though his face is brighter than his eyes. As he looks up to Nora, he sees her blushing just as badly, though she can't hide the small smile on her face.

Again, Grun's big brother instincts take over and he can't help but continue teasing her. "Unless you were _planning_ on having a certain martial artist take a peek? See if he might be interested?"

Grun can't help but laugh even louder as Nora tries to cover his mouth with one hand and bop his head with her other fist, though she is having little success with either venture. Weiss sighs wearily and places her face in her hand, quietly muttering about immaturity.

A few yards behind them, Blitz and Leere are walking on either side of Ren, both trying, and failing, to hide how much they're enjoying the boy's plight. Blitz leans over and asks him, "Alright, seriously, how have you two not gotten together yet? You are too cute."

"I-it's not like that" Ren quietly mutters. "We're just good friends. We've known each other forever. We don't think about each other like that." Leere can easily tell that couldn't be further from the truth for either of them, but she can't help put tease.

"You don't think of each other like that, huh?" She asks slyly. When Ren shakes his head, she smiles as she asks him, "What color were her panties?"

"Bright Teal." Ren quickly answers before quickly realizing what he had said, clamping his mouth shut as his face burns even brighter. Blitz can't hold back anymore and starts laughing uncontrollably, Leere giggling more quietly.

"Sh-shut up" Ren quietly mutters as he tries to walk away from the husband and wife. Before he gets too far, however, he feels a hand on his shoulder.

"Ok, ok, we're done teasing you, Ren." Leere says, but the mirth is still evident in her voice. "But we can't help it, you two are just too adorable, dancing around your feelings for each other. Trying to act like you **AREN'T** heads over heels for each other."

Blitz decides to put his two cents in, asking, "Seriously, why aren't you two a thing? I haven't seen as much love between two people since Grun and…."

Blitz slowly stops talking as he realizes what he was about to say. Leere frowns as he stops, but she holds his hand, trying to show she wasn't upset at him for bringing it up. Ren looks between the two, confused about what they meant.

"Grun and who?" Ren asks the two. He sees them both looking past him. He turns and sees Grun staring at the three of them, having heard what they were talking about. He can see the hurt in Grun's eyes, but Grun clamps down on it, nodding towards the two before turning back around, focusing on a story that Nora was telling Weiss and him, still riding on Grun's shoulders.

"Grun…." Leere started. "Was married before he left the White Fang." Ren was visibly shocked hearing this. He had asked Jaune a few things about Grun after the first time he had met, but Jaune never once mentioned Grun's wife.

"He was married? This is the first I'm hearing of it." Ren said. Blitz laughed as he said, "Yeah, I'm not surprised. Jaune never was one to go around talking about other people's business."

Ren smiled in return, agreeing to himself that that sounded like Jaune. "What was she like, if you don't mind me asking?" Leere was the one to answer this question. "Her name was Arianna Amitola, and she was one of the nicest, sweetest women I ever had the honor to call a friend. She was a fellow Huntress, though we went to different schools."

Leere stooped talking to sip from her canteen before continuing, "We all went to Vale, while Arianna and her team were based in Mistral. We actually fought against them during the Vytal festival in the doubles round our last year, with Grun and I fighting together. We fought against Arianna and her partner, Roman."

Ren sputters and stops Leere as he says, "Wait, Roman? As in Roman Torchwick?!" Seeing Blitz nod to him, Ren continues by saying, "You are telling me that the international criminal, the man partially responsible for the Attack of Vytal and the Fall of Beacon used to be a Huntsman?!"

Leere smirked as she said, "Well, technically, he never graduated from Beacon. But, yes, he received Huntsman training prior to falling to a life of crime. Did you all honestly never find it odd that he could easily out pace and out maneuver so many Hunters and police? Not to mention having a Huntsman grade weapon and Aura?"

After hearing all of these points for laid out for him to actually review, Ren felt extremely embarrassed it took him this long to connect the dots. Roman may have been a criminal lord in his own right, but he was _**far**_ from a slouch when it came to combat. And Huntsman weapons, especially the mechashifting variety, were not something someone went out and bought cheaply, let alone the time, money and effort it took to maintain them. Someone wouldn't invest in something like that if they couldn't use it like a professional, which is why so many lackey's and henchmen stuck to the simple cheap blades and guns.

"Anyway" Leere said, "We fought against the two, and let me tell you, we were hard-pressed to win that fight. We never could figure out Roman's Semblance, he kept every ace up his sleeve that he could. But Arianna, she wore her strength out in the open. She called it 'Repulsion', which I think she did to be contrary, because even I have to admit she was a stunning beauty. She never exactly explained the science behind it, but from what she told us, she could repel anything she touches at incredible speeds."

Blitz smiled as he said, "So yeah, the four fought hard, and basically Grun was the last one left standing. After the match, Grun and Arianna started talking over lunch, while the rest of us did our own thing." He stops and chuckles for a minute before he says, "The funny thing is, Grun wasn't even looking for a relationship, he was genuinely curious about how where she learned to fight, how she discovered her semblance, stuff like that. He never was very good at being able to see when women are taking an interest in him, as I'm sure you're accustomed to."

Ren shakes his head as he mutters, "Oum is there anything Jaune didn't learn from Grun?"

"Why didn't Jaune say anything about Grun being married?" Ren asks them. "Whenever one of us asked about Grun, we couldn't get him to _**stop**_ talking about him. He talked like he idolized Grun." Blitz and Leere smiled hearing this, before Leere answered him.

"Honestly, that's not too far from the truth. Grun's been part of Jaune's life for many years now, and has watched him speak and fight along side his parents as equals. To Jaune, Grun is the epitome of what a Huntsman should be; strong, brave, honorable, selfless. Grun has helped him with training, schooling, pranking his sisters, running and hiding from said sisters. There are few things that Jaune and Grun haven't shared. They trust and respect each other explicitly, and they both would die before betraying that."

Leere's smile falls as she continues speaking, "Jaune didn't talk about Grun's wife because he doesn't want to bring up painful memories." Ren watched Leere for a moment, but he can tell she was struggling to speak, so he turned to Blitz.

"What kind of bad memories?" He finally asked. "Were the two not happy with the marriage? They get divorced or something?" Blitz looks to Ren, a look of sadness crossing his face as well.

"No," Blitz replies. "They were probably the happiest couple Remnant has seen in a long time." Blitz smirks for a moment as he adds, "Besides Leere and I, of course." Leere smiles as she slips her hand into her husbands, squeezing it gently.

"No," Blitz continues. "The memory of his wife is painful because she was killed." Ren's face falls as he says, "Oh, I'm sorry."

The three kept walking in silence for a few minutes before curiosity gets the better of Ren, causing him to ask them, "What happened? Did a mission go bad?" Before he can ask anything more, he hears a growl to his side. He turns quickly, expecting to find a Grimm coming at them, only to stop just as quickly. He is speechless as he finds the growling coming from Leere, a look of pure, unadulterated rage on her face. Blitz isn't faring much better, but he at least answers Ren's question.

"It wasn't Grimm that killed her." Blitz growls out. "She was murdered. In her own home." Ren is gob smacked, not able to believe what he was hearing. "Murdered?" he croaks out. "What do you mean murdered?"

Leere whirls to face him, hissing at him. "We mean exactly what we said. Arianna was murdered, by the White Fang." Ren couldn't believe what he was hearing. Grun was PART OF the White Fang! Why would they turn on one of their own?!

Blitz could see the disbelief on his face and spoke up. "Yes, we know how unbelievable it sounds, but it's the truth. The White Fang felt that Grun was a threat to the new leaders and their new way of thinking, and decided to have him removed. You see, Ghira stepped down from leading the Fang because he didn't agree with the up and coming way of thinking, which was to move away from the peaceful protests and sit ins: and in turn more towards a more 'proactive' way of achieving results, namely causing trouble for businesses and people who openly discriminated against Faunus. Grun sided with Ghira, saying that doing this would only lead to causing more trouble for Faunus down the line. But he stayed with the Fang, for multiple reasons, chiefly being to try to talk some sense into the leaders and change their minds."

Leere sighs as she starts speaking. "The sad part is that he was making headway. Grun kept bringing in news and reports, not only of the limited success the attacks were having, but also of the negative impacts they were having on Faunus world wide. Wide spread fear, distrust and hatred were becoming more normal, and the leaders didn't like what they were seeing. There were even talks of withdrawing the strike teams and stopping the harassment."

Leere reached up to wipe a tear away as she continued, "That's when it happened. Grun was coming home from a meeting with the leaders. When he walked into his house, he found Arianna on the ground, a Faunus standing over her with his swords coated in blood."

Macht decided to chime in at this point, having kept silent until now. "Bradley King was the man who killed Arianna. He had just been brought into the Fang and it was his first mission, handed down to him directly from the ones who resented Grun."

Ren shook his head as he said to Macht, "How could he have beaten her? You guys said you had to work together just to wear her down. How could a single man _**KILL**_ her, in her own house, no less?"

Macht answered again, letting Leere and Blitz rest from their explanation. "You know as well as any of us that Aura is far from infallible. Her Semblance was heavily reliant on many factors to work, chiefly being she had to activate her Aura for it to work. And King knew this having studied her fighting style long before attacking. And his Semblance, unfortunately, was the perfect foil to hers."

Blitz clenched his fist as he interrupted his brother, saying, "He calls it 'Flash Step'. He can concentrate his Aura to his extremities, allowing him to move with explosive, blinding speed. I've heard people who have seen him fight say he can move so fast that he can reduce an enemy to a pile of meat between one heart beat and the next."

Blitz spat to the side, trying to rid his mouth of the sour taste he was experiencing before continuing. "And he adopted a fighting style that matched his Semblance. 'Death by a Thousand Cuts', 'Hornets' Nest,' 'Exsanguination.' He would always give it flashy names, trying to scare people. And it fits a sadist like him. He can move fast enough to kill before you even realize you're in danger, but he _chooses_ to draw out the process, reveling in the pain and fear he inflicts on his opponents."

Ren is visibly becoming ill at the picture being painted of the man, his face paling, then quickly turning green. "And how did this allow him to beat Arianna?" Ren's voice is audibly trembling as he asks this.

"He moved so fast that Arianna didn't have the chance to activate her Aura long enough to use her Semblance." Leere was close to tears as she said this. "He kept rushing her, long enough to cut her a fee times and knock her off balance before backing off, letting her catch her breath and try again before he repeated the process, slowly whittling away at her Aura until it was gone. Then he kept cutting her, slowly bleeding her one strike at a time, painting the walls, floor, even the ceiling in her blood. He was trying to send a message, to make an _**example**_ out of her, as a warning against anyone who spoke out against the White Fang."

Blitz squeezed her hand again, trying desperately to comfort his wife. Though her eyes were still clenched shut, he felt her hand stop trembling in his. He took in a trembling breath before he spoke again.

"Grun walked in before he finished her off. King had allocated so much time to kill Arianna before Grun got home to give his Aura time to recharge, but he drew out the fight longer than he had meant to. He got angry for the oversight and he started attacking Grun. He was attempting the same tactic with Grun, but with his Aura being depleted he couldn't keep up the onslaught, although Grun didn't get out unscathed. A lot of the newer scars you guys saw were from his fight with Bradley. But the worst part was what ultimately saved Grun's life."

Ren waited for them to continue the story, but looking at both of Leere and Blitz, he could see that they weren't going to keep talking. He turned to Macht, who was just as upset, but he finished the story, regardless. "Apparently Bradley had set up a contingency plan in case he didn't succeed in the assassination."

He practically growled when he said, "A Dust Bomb. Pure, uncut Fire Dust mixed with Lightning Dust and set to explode half an hour after he left, unless he deactivated it. Grun had fought off Bradley enough to grab Arianna and head out of the house. We don't know what gave it away, but Arianna must have heard something, or saw something, because just before the bomb went off, she had gathered just enough Aura to use her Semblance one last time. It wasn't much of a push, but it was enough to send Grun away from the majority of the blast, although his arms were still burned from the heat, and the blast itself threw him headfirst into their car in the road."

Macht chokes up as he recounts the only part he saw first hand. "When we got there, he was digging through what was left of the house, barehanded. He attacked the rubble like a man possessed, not even acknowledging the three of us yelling at him to stop. When Blitz tried to pull him away, Grun almost dislocated his jaw. He was screaming that Arianna was still in there, somewhere."

Leere and Blitz are openly weeping, though Blitz subconsciously rubs his jaw as Macht continues. "It took all three of us combined to pull him away from the remains of his house, and even then Blitz had to shock him _**two times**_ before he finally fell unconscious. We took him to a doctor who wouldn't ask questions, who patched him up and kept him under observation."

Blitz cleared his throat before speaking up. "Both Grun and Arianna were pronounced dead, some story about a bad Dust coil in the oven going off. But the Albion Brothers jumped at the chance to lay the blame at the feet of the Schnees, painting them as evil, vindictive monsters who would kill anyone that tried to bring equality to the Faunus."

Leere spoke up as well, saying, "It almost _**destroyed**_ Grun. The group he helped cultivate, that he had so much hope for, had his wife killed, and almost killed him, because he spoke out against him. We watched over him for three days straight, terrified that he was going to do something stupid to be with Arianna again. On the forth morning, the constant worry, stress and lack of sleep caught up us and we all three passed out. When we woke up, Grun was gone, and we didn't have any idea where he went. We searched half the city, before we finally got a clue that he was talking to an old contact. We finally tracked him down and confronted him before he told us his plan."

She starts crying again as she continues, "I could see it in his eyes that night. He was _**hoping**_ to die on his 'mission', _**hoping**_ that the group that took his wife from him would finish the job. So three of us decided to join him, to help him find something to live for while we took down the White Fang."

Blitz shook his head as he said, "So far, the only thing that even slowed his self hatred was finding Blake and Jaune again. They helped remind him that he still has a family, that he still has people who love him. And it has been an uphill battle even with their help."

"Seeing Grun with those two," Leere breathed out, "It's the first time he had even _**smiled**_ in months since it happened. They have helped him start to heal, but it's still a slow process." She looks up to Grun, talking with both Nora and Weiss, Blake back at his side. "He blames himself, you know. He thinks that if he had just given up on fighting the Fang back then, maybe Arianna would still be alive. But he also knows that Arianna would never forgive him if he compromised his beliefs like that, just to make someone happy."

Ren looks forward as well, seeing Grun reach up and plucking Nora from his shoulders, lifting her and setting her down as if he were moving a child. He is smiling at the pout Nora is sending his way, ruffling her hair before motioning the rest of the group to join them. Ren thinks about the strength that Grun possesses. To keep moving forward, even after losing the love of his life. Ren looks to Nora, wondering if he had the strength Grun did, if anything ever happened to Nora. He then feels his face heat up, realizing he just compared himself and Nora with Grun and his wife! He shakes his head, trying to rid the thoughts from his head. But as he opens his eyes again, he sees Nora looking at him, offering him her hand and a blinding smile. He returns the smile, though much softer and takes her hand into his, feeling her fingers wrap around his as Grun reaches up to knock on the door of the Cabin they finally arrived at.

" _It's true"_ Ren thinks as the door opens. " _I really do love Nora. And I will do anything to keep her safe._ "

Grun smiles as he sees Qrow opening the door, followed by a bulkier blonde man, an uncertain look on his face. Qrow smiles back at him and opens his mouth to speak, but he is interrupted by a red blur streaking past him and latching itself around the necks of Weiss and Blake.

"Weeeiiiiissss! Blaaaaaaaake! You guys are heeeeeeere!" Ruby is practically squealing with joy at seeing her teammates, but her teammates don't share her enthusiasm, outwardly, that is. Weiss begins berating Ruby about manners and decorum, but no one misses the death grip she has on Ruby's cloak, her hand trembling as she grabs her with everything she has.

"It's sweet," Qrow said, "Seeing young love bloom after being away for so long." He starts laughing when both Ruby and Weiss start blushing, as Blake had backed out of the hug before hand, leaving the two smaller girls hugging each other. He starts laughing even harder when Ruby starts smack her hands against his chest, with no obvious signs that Qrow even felt it.

"Ruby," Grun said, "It's good to see you up and about so quickly after what happened. Are you feeling alright?" Ruby quickly turned to him and smiled, before smacking a fist to her chest.

"I'm feeling perfectly fine and ready to go back to kicking Grimm butt! I've already been training with Uncle Qrow again!" Qrow smiles warmly at his niece, but he quickly hides it when Grun looks to him, walking over go him to ask, "Have you had any luck getting her to use…them?"

Qrow shakes his head before unscrewing his flask to take a quick swig, muttering back "No, after the Tower, we haven't been able to manifest her power. I don't understand what we're missing." He stops talking when he feels Grun squeeze his shoulder, smiling at him and saying, "We still have time, Qrow. We'll figure it out." Qrow slowly nodded before putting his flask away.

Grun frowns before asking, "How's Yang doing?" His frown deepens when Qrow shakes his head. "She's in a bad way, Grun. Losing her arm like that, it'd break almost anybody. Let alone a Huntress in Training. She wasn't ready for things to get that bad. Hell, none of us were! Now she's locked herself in her room. She barely acknowledges us when we bring her food, she snaps at us if we offer her help. I don't know what to do, man. None of us do."

Grun can see how badly Qrow is torn up over not being able to help his niece. He shakes his head before turning to the other man and saying, "Mr. Xiao-Long, I presume?" His eyes widen slightly before saying, "I prefer to just go by Tai, but yes, that's me."

Grun nods as he continues, "If it's alright with you, I would like to try to speak your daughter. Maybe a new voice will get her to open up." Tai looks conflicted for a moment before he sighs and says, "Go ahead, though I doubt you'll do any better than any of us. Not like you'll be able to make her avoid us _**MORE**_ than she already is."

Grun nods before walking into the house, stopping to remove his boots and setting them by the door. As he walks down the hallway, he finds the only door that is actually shut and stands in front of it, gathering his thoughts before raising his hand to knock on it.

"I said I don't want to see anyone right now," Yang's voice can be heard through the door, muffled and strained. Grun lowers his hand and says, "Yang, it's Grun." For a moment, Grun can't hear anything before she responds.

"Go away Grun. I don't want to see you right now." Grun feels a slight pain in his chest, hearing how small and pitiful her voice sounds right now. But he keeps talking to her. He lifts his hand back up and places it on her door before he speaks again. "Yang, please. I want to see you. I came all the way here to make sure your team was here for you. Can I please come in and talk to you?"

Grun knew he was laying it on thick, trying to guilt her into seeing him, and he felt terrible for doing it. But he was determined to do everything he could to help her. Finally, after a few more minutes of silence, Yang finally sighed before saying, "Alright, you can come in. But _**nobody else**_ is to come in, got it?"

Grun was quick to answer, not wanting to upset her. "It's only me here right now, Yang. Everyone else stayed outside. I promise." Grun lowered his hand to the door nob and gently turned it, stepping into the door quickly and shutting it behind him. As he turns to Yang, several things jump out at him at one time, driving home how bad of shape Yang was in.

She was adamantly staring out the window, refusing to look in his direction. He could see that her once vibrant Lilac eyes were a dull purple, all traces of the fire and determination he had come to associate with her gone. Her shoulders were trembling, every creak and groan made by the house and trees causing her to jump, as if she expects every noise to be someone come to kill her.

But worst was her hair. The once glorious, shining mane of spun gold she meticulously cared for had been reduced to a matted, filthy mop, reminiscent of old straw. Grease and dirt could be seen clinging to it. Knots and tangles are evident as well, where she hasn't even bothered to brush it.

Grun cautiously walked over to Yang, slowly approaching as if walking up to a frightened animal. When he reached her bedside, he grabbed a chair at her desk and sat beside her, observing how her left hand clutched at the bandages on her right arm.

"Yang," Grun whispers. When she doesn't turn to him, he tries again. "Yang, please look at me." After a couple of moments of silence, she turns her head to him, finally meeting his eyes. What he sees on her face almost breaks his heart. Her face is just as dirty as her hair, the only spots untouched by dirt being the two trails of clean skin trailing from her eyes down her cheeks. Seeing fresh tears starting to well up in her eyes, he gently reaches out and rests a hand against her shoulder, feeling her flinch at his touch.

He quickly pulls his hand back, before standing up and walking into the adjacent bathroom. Walking back out, Yang sees him carrying a wash cloth, a large bowl of water, and a hair brush. Setting the items down on the night stand, he dunks the wash cloth into the water before wringing it out, leaving it slightly damp. He reaches for her face and starts scrubbing the dirt from her cheek. She pulls away before he makes much progress, but she is quickly pulled back to face him, feeling his thumb and forefinger holding her chin. "Please," Grun pleaded. "Please let me do this, Yang. Let me do SOMETHING to help you."

Yang looks ready to snap at Grun, thinking he is doing this out of pity. But as she looks into his eyes again, she doesn't see a trace of it, only genuine care and worry. Feeling she was being unfair to him, she sighs but nods to him, allowing him to continue. Grun smiles gently at her before he continues scrubbing the filth and tears stains from her face.

After a few minutes of silence, Yang finally decides she can't stand listening to nothing but the sound of the cloth scrubbing her face and the occasional drip of water from Grun cleaning it out in the bowl. She quietly asks him, "Why are you doing this?"

Grun smiles as he says, "Because apparently you'd rather have me bathe you than your own father or sister." Yang blushes a dull pink, but doesn't bother to argue with him. She decides to ask more directly this time.

"I meant why are you going out of your way to help me? You are spending time on me that you could dedicate to your mission. Why waste your time on a failure if a Huntress who couldn't even protect her partner?"

The tremor that slips into her voice the longer she speaks does not go unnoticed, so Grun sets the washcloth down with a sigh before he gently lifts her chin to look into his eyes again.

"I am only going to say this once, Yang, so do not make me repeat myself. You _**are not**_ a failure. Just because you lose does not mean you fail. You can bleed from a thousand battles, crush a hundred of your bones, and you would still not be a failure. There will **ALWAYS** be an opponent out there that is stronger than you, and you never know when you will meet them. All you can do is pick yourself up, patch up your wounds, and train yourself even harder than before."

Grun feels Yang start to tremble in his grip, but upon seeing her eyes turn a blood red, he realizes that she is shaking with rage. She smacks his hand from her chin before growling at him.

"Pick myself up? Patch up my wounds?! TRAIN HARDER?! I lost my FUCKING ARM, Grun! That bastard Adam was gutting my partner, and when I tried to stop him, he sliced me like a side of fucking beef! I will NEVER be the same fighter I was before, I will never be the same PERSON I was before, and all you can say to me is 'Do better next time?!' Who the **FUCK** are you to tell me to do better, you Asshole?! If you had done better on your mission, you could have stopped this from happening in the first place!"

Grun sat there staring at Yang, weathering the storm of her rage, her anger literally rolling off her in waves, her hair billowing from the power she is radiating, seemingly allowing it to wash over him without hurting him. After a few moments of panting and glaring at him, Yang's head finally catches up with her mouth, and her demeanor changes in an instant, a mixture of horror, shame, and fear clear on her face.

Yang starts stammering, "G-grun, wait, I…I didn't mean," but she is stopped by Grun holding up his hand, her heart and mind racing, terrified she went too far and turned Grun against her. Grun stands up and walks in front on Yang, standing a few inches away from her, their bodies almost touching. Looking down into her eyes, he can see she is honestly sorry that she said what she said. He shakes his head and sighs before he takes ahold of her, wrapping her into his arms and holding her against him. Yang stiffens in his hold, waiting for him to say something, scared he was hugging her goodbye. But she is shocked when he starts speaking again.

"I'm not going to lie to you and say that what you said was fine. It wasn't, it was far from fine, it was far from fair, and it hurt me deeply." Yang can't help but start to tear up again. Grun continues to speak, "However, I understand that you have gone through a lot, your world and your understanding of the world have been shaken to the core, and you have been hurt and scarred in a way that a person should never have to experience. So, while it was uncalled for, I understand it was said in the heat of the moment, and that you are truly sorry for saying it. So I forgive you, this one time."

Grun can hear her audibly sigh in relief before she wraps her one arm around him, hugging him back as tightly as her arm would allow. But her hand grabs hold of his shirt, threatening to tear it, her whole body shaking before she breaks down into loud, gut wrenching sobs. Her legs give out and she falls to her knees, but Grun is there to catch her, gently guiding her to the floor before she buries her face into his chest, crying loudly, soaking his shirt front completely.

Ten minutes pass before Yang finally starts to calm down. As she leans back, she can see the large stain of tears she left on Grun, feeling embarrassed and ashamed that she broke down like that.

"Sorry," Yang mutters, "About ruining your shirt." Grun looks down at it, before he looks back up, simply shrugging and giving her a lopsided grin. "Don't worry about it," he says. "It's just a shirt. I can replace it any time. The only things I worry about are the things I can't replace. Jaune, My parents, my team, my sister." Grun stops to gently cup her cheek, running a thumb over it before continuing. "You."

Yang feels her blush intensify at the cheesy line, but she can't bring herself to call him out on it, or pull away from his hands, reveling in how strong and warm it feels on her cheek.

"Idiot," she finally mumbles. She looks up to see him grinning shamelessly at her. She finally cracks a smile at him, although a small one. But it is the first time she has smiled since Beacon, so she won't complain too much.

Yang feels her smile dampen slightly, though when she looks down at the stump that was once her arm. Looking back up, she sees the same worry in Grun's eyes that was there before. She takes in a shaky breathe before she says, "Look…Grun. I know over the last couple months we have gotten closer, even though we never really established if we were more than friends or just friends who are closer than most people. I just want to say, that after…" she weakly waves her stump at him, "This….I would understand if you didn't want to be….anything with me anymore. I wouldn't blame you for not wanting to be associated with a cripple like me."

Yang closes her eyes and turns her face to the floor, afraid that she was going to lose something precious to her before she even really had a chance to experience it.

She feels Grun's hands leave her back, causing her to almost break down. But just as quickly, she feels his hands take hold of her one hand, as well as her chin again. Letting him pull her face to his, she opens her eyes again and stares into his.

"Yang," Grun softly says to her, gently running his thumb over the knuckles of her hand. "I honestly can't remember the last time I became as close a friend with anyone, as I have with you. And I never became so close so quickly either. So trust me when I say that I am not going to lose your friendship anytime soon. That much I can promise you."

Yang smiles again for a moment before she sees him frowning, continuing what he was saying. "And you are _**not**_ a cripple. This may be a set back, yes, but it is _**far**_ career ending, let alone life ending. I have seen how strong you are, and I don't mean how much you could bench." He reaches a hand forward and places a finger below her collar bone, doing his best to ignore how dangerously close that put his finger to her breast, though Yang can't help but notice it herself. He coughs as he continues, "I mean the strength you have in here. You have one of the biggest hearts I have ever seen." He stops and smirks at her before saying, "And one of the hardest heads, as well. But regardless, from what I have seen, you are always doing your utmost for the people you care about. To you, loved ones come first. Family isn't ONLY blood to you, anyone you consider close, you protect with the ferocity of a mother bear. And with twice the punch."

Yang lets out a small chuckle at this but doesn't interrupt him, wanting to hear him finish his point. "Just because you may feel vulnerable now doesn't mean you aren't fit to be a Huntress. _**Everybody**_ experiences that feeling, and they definitely feel it more than once throughout their careers. But that is why you _have_ family, friends, a team. They are there to help pick you up, dust you off and set you back on track. I know you aren't used to having to rely on others, after having to be a mother and a sister to Ruby, but don't be scared to lean back on the shoulders that lean on you. No man, or woman, is an island."

Grun pulls his hand back, but before he can pull it away fully, she reaches up and takes his hand into hers, entwining their fingers together. Grun doesn't comment on it, but he begins to feel his neck heat up, and the satisfied look Yang shoots him only makes it worse.

"I think you will bounce back from this Yang, you are strong, stronger than you give yourself credit for." He can feel her squeeze his hand, not enough to hurt, only enough to get his attention. When he looks back into her eyes, he sees the tiniest spark of her old fire back in them before she speaks to him.

"So you covered two parts of what I said, but I think there is still a big question hanging in the air." Grun quickly averts his eyes from her, having hoped she wouldn't point that out. "And what question would that be?"

Grun's vision is almost completely encompassed by the color yellow, the veritable sea of it only broken by an island of light peach and two large, deep pools of lilac. Knowing he can't keep from looking, he turns his eyes back to hers, finding them only inches from his own, their noses almost grazing each other.

"The question," Yang whispered, "Is what does this mean for _US_. Is there even an _US?_ Are we only friends, is there a chance that there could be more? Or has this.." she moves her arm to the side, "Completely destroyed there ever being a chance for more?"

Grun tries to stand firm before the look she is giving him. But the mixture of hope, fear and desire prove too much, even to his iron will and he finally shakes his head. "Yang," he says, "I….I honestly don't understand what you see in me. I'm nearly a decade older than you are. And I really haven't done anything to deserve your affection."

Yang smiles at him and says, "Are you saying you don't **want** my affections?" "N-no, that's not what I…." Grun quickly slams his lips shut, but he can already see the damage had been done. Her smile widens as she says, "And it obviously doesn't bother me that you are older than me. So it shouldn't bother you either."

Grun huffs but decides to drop the big bomb. "I am not the virtuous man you seem to think I am, Yang. I am a criminal, plain and simple. I have stolen from people, I have tortured people…." Grun sighs as he says this next part. "And I have killed people. A lot of people." As Grun looks up to Yang, he sees her eyes have gone wide and her face has gone pale. He can see several emotions pass across her face, revulsion, denial, and fear.

Grun quickly stands up from his chair, confident he has shattered her delusions of affection. As he turns around he hears her call out to him, "Grun, wait!" He stops moving but he doesn't face her. "What is it?" Hearing Yang take in a shaky breath before she continues. "Will you answer a few questions before you go? Please?"

Grun takes a deep breath before letting it out, still refusing to face her, and the look of judgement on her face. "You said you've stolen, tortured and k-killed. Why? Will you tell me the reason you did those things?"

Hoping that the answers will get him out of the room faster, he answers honestly. "Necessity." Was his one word answer, but to his dismay Yang asks him, "What do you mean 'Necessity'?"

Grun reaches a hand up to massage his temples as he says, "I meant what I said. I used to have to steal just to get enough food to survive before the Belladonnas took me in." Grun stops talking when he hears Yang giggling at him.

"So you expect me to think less of you because of something you did as a _**child**_ , just so you could _**survive**_? I'm not going to judge you for doing what you had to do to stay alive. And besides, I dare you to find me _**anyone**_ who _**didn't**_ do something stupid as a kid. Hell, find me someone in this _**room**_ who hasn't done stupid shit as a kid!"

Grun huffs, conceding the point to her. Yang stops giggling to ask her questions again. "Now that was why you stole. What about the…other things?" Yang quietly trails off, obviously less able to stomach the ideas of these crimes.

"The torture? The murder?" Yang cringes hearing him say these words so…casually. When she looks back up to him, she sees that he turned his head slightly, looking at her from the corner of his eye, not facing her fully. She silently nods to him, wanting him to continue.

"I have tortured people to obtain information. Names, places, dates, times, any number of tidbits I need to paint the picture I need to combat planned attacks, kidnapping, and assassinations. I have done extremely painful things to people in order to get the information needed to foil these acts of terrorism."

Yang can feel her stomach churning thinking about some of the possible things he may have done to some people, but she keeps going. "Why resort to such horrible things?"

Grun shrugged his shoulder, almost causing Yang to snap at him before he started speaking again. "Don't misunderstand, torture is NEVER my first choice of information gathering. My first route is usually paid informants, rumors, and information brokers. If those don't pan out, it then turns into tailings, stakeouts and hacking. If those turn up no information, then I take into account what is happening, when it is happening, and if it involves innocents. If it turns out to be rival gangs about to duke it out in an abandoned factory, I let them go at it then we would go in and detain whoever is still standing as well as whoever isn't dead. Petty squabbles between criminals rarely ever land in our radar, but we monitor them in case they can spill into areas that could put civilians in harms way."

Grun sighs and rubs his eyes, before saying, "And those are far from the worst things we deal with. If someone is targeting parades, hospitals, schools for bombings or chemical attacks, then we run through our options _**quickly**_ , because we rarely have much time to stop it if we hear about it. Twenty four to Forty eighty hours after initial discovery, if we're _**lucky**_. So we usually fall to the more…extreme measures much quicker, when innocents live are at risk. And these types of people very rarely willingly divulge information, so the conversations become…heated. But we _**WILL NOT**_ allow innocents to suffer to fuel some radicals agenda and propaganda."

Yang can be seen chewing her lip in thought before she says, "I may not completely agree with the method….but I also have never been put in the situations that you have. And I know you, you are not a cruel man. You wouldn't do those things unless their was literally no other choice. So I understand why you did these things."

Grun can't help but to scoff at what Yang said, but for some odd reason, he can feel a pressure in his chest he never noticed before lessen, just the slightest bit. He almost feels….lighter hearing Yang say that, as if a small bit of weight has been lifted from his chest.

"A-and," Yang coughs, "The last….thing?" Grun shakes his head, knowing that this would be the hardest part for her to hear. "The killing. Yes, I have killed. Many people. Murderers, terrorists, rapists, thugs, crime lords, human….Faunus. I have killed, either to rid the world of somebody who willing harms the innocent, or those who sought to end my life. Or the life of someone I cared about."

Yang, "But the way you talk, most if not all of those killings sound justified. Hell, Grun, you said yourself that a lot of them were either in self defense or the defense of others." Grun shakes his head before he says, "The reason behind it doesn't change the fact I have willingly ended people's lives. No matter who they are, no matter what they did, I still killed a PERSON. And I will always have to live with that."

Yang can see the slight tremble in Grun's shoulders, so she slowly lifts herself to her feet before quietly walking to Grun, placing a hand on his shoulder before spinning him around to look into his eyes. Looking at him, she can see the pain, the regret over the things he has done. " _He says he's done terrible things_ " she thinks to herself. " _But even I can see that he is torn up about it."_ She speaks aloud and asks, "Do you know how many? How many people have died?"

Not even hesitating Grun says, "One hundred and sixty-five. The final moments of their lives have been permanently burned into my memories. I can remember every single name, face and reason for their deaths. An unfortunate side affect of near Eidetic memory, so I've been told."

Yang can't help but see the sincerity practically pouring from Grun. Having nearly made up her mind about her feelings, and her decision, she readies herself as she says, "I have one last question, if that is ok." Waiting to see him nod, she finally takes a deep breath and asks, "Do you regret the things you have done?"

Grun stands slightly straighter before he says, "I don't. I don't regret the things that I did, or the reasons I did them for. The only thing that I regret is that they _**HAD**_ to be done, in order to keep people safe."

Yang thinks for a moment more before she smiles gently at him, before her face suddenly slips in close to his. For a moment, all Grun can register is the vast expanse of gold filling his vision, and the gentle felling of pillows against his own lips. Once his brain finally processes that something is happening, he quickly has the thought, " _By the Brothers, she's kissing me! What the hell?! Gotta put a stop to this!"_ Grun reaches up with a hand to push her away, but before he can, her hand snakes around his back, pulling him flush against her. Before he even realizes what he's doing, he's responding to her pull by putting his hands onto her hips and starts returning the kiss.

Feeling Grun start kissing her back, she feels her heart soar. " _Thank Oum"_ she thinks. " _He's not rejecting me. Now to make sure he never forgets this."_ Feeling a surge of confidence, Yang pushes Grun up against the wall, pressing herself against him as hard as she can. With her hand free again, she reaches up and grabs hold of his ponytail, giving it a gentle tug.

Grun can't comprehend what is happening. He was just explaining the terrible things he's done, trying to dissuade her from pursuing him. Now he's experiencing the sweetest kiss he's ever felt. The feeling of soft lips against his, the heat of a body pressed against his own, the scent of flowers and sunlight flooding his nose. His head is swimming, the sensations assaulting his senses has caused everything else to melt away; all his worries, all his fears, all his rage, all these things have stopped mattering and all that he cares about is diving deeper into this sensation.

When his mind starts to clear, he feels a hand grab hold of his hair, tangling their fingers in his ponytail. Feeling a gentle, persistent pull, he allows his head to fall back, willing to go with this for the moment.

Grun finds that complying is the best decision he has made, as the Wonder of Remnant that is Yang's lips leave his own, but they are quickly moved to his neck. Grun feels shivers race up and down his spine, feeling her kiss him directly over his aorta, the submission in allowing himself to be that vulnerable coupled with the knowledge that he isn't in danger, causes sparks of euphoria to race across his throat. But these feelings pale in comparison to Yang's next move. The soft, sensual kissing suddenly shifts, her velvety lips traded to sharp teeth, biting down on his neck.

An explosion of light and electric energy suddenly encompasses everything Grun sees and feels. Pleasure like he hasn't known in a long time drives all conscience thought from his mind, and he loses the strength to stand. As he slowly slides down to the floor, he feels Yang slide with him. She lets his legs slips through hers and quickly settles her weight on Grun's thighs once he settles to the floor.

Keeping her mouth against his neck, she can feel how deep and rapid his breathing has become. But what catches her attention is the deep rumbling coming from his throat. Placing one last kiss on the spot she was biting on, she leans back to look at Grun. She can see that his eyes have glazed over slightly and he can't hide the stupid looking grin on his face. " _Ha!"_ she thinks " _If I can still do that to him after losing my arm, maybe Grun's right. Maybe I can pick myself up after this."_

When Grun finally collects himself, he looks up to see Yang smiling down at him, a look of satisfied smugness plastered across her face. He immediately feels a massive blush explode across his face, knowing that he let himself lose control like he did. "So," Yang says to him, arrogance dripping from the single word. "I think it's safe to say that your attempts to scare me off failed." Grun can't help but scoff and say "Spectacularly."

Yang reaches out to cup his cheek, making sure he looks into her eyes before she speaks to him again. "Grun, I'm not going to lie and say what you have done doesn't bother me. But I understand that you had your reasons for doing them, and I agree with your reasons. If push came to shove, I honestly don't know if I wouldn't do the same thing if someone I cared about were in danger. And more importantly, I can tell that you honestly regret it. So, I will tell you this, I won't hold your actions against you. And I forgive you."

Grun shakes his head before saying, "You may forgive me, but that doesn't mean I can forgive myself. But…..still, thank you." Looking up at Yang, he sees that she has settled down more firmly on his legs, and shows no intention of moving anytime soon.

"So," Grun says to her, "Can I stand up now?" Yang smiles cheekily at him and says, "Nope!" Grun rolls his eyes and moves to lift her up, but she wraps her legs around his calves, locking her ankles together under his so that he can't lift her.

Huffing at her he says, "What is it going to take to get you to let me stand up?" Yang leans closer to Grun, gently brushing her chest against his as she says, "Answer me one last question, and I'll let you up."

Grun sighs dramatically before saying, "What other questions could you possibly have after all that?" Yang leans back and looks to him seriously before asking, "Are you still against being in a relationship with me?"

Grun looks to her, completely dumbfounded by the question. But he answers her honestly. "I was never _**against**_ us being in a relationship, Yang. I wasn't _**ready**_ for a relationship. There is a significant difference." He winced a little when he felt her slap his shoulder, but couldn't help but forgiving her for it when he saw how cute she was when she pouted at him.

"You know what I meant," she huffed. "Jerk. Stop dodging the question. Do you want us to be a thing, or are we only friends?" Grun wants to tell her he doesn't want a relationship with her, that he only wants to be a friend to her and nothing more, but when he thinks of her holding someone else like she's holding him, kissing them like she kissed him, looking at them like she's looking at him, he is ashamed to admit he feels a pang of jealousy. And this causes him to do something he has almost never done before.

He hesitated. In all his life, Grun has always been able to move forward, confident that his decisions, while not always _right_ , are what _need_ to be done. The hordes of Grimm he has destroyed _NEEDED_ to be destroyed. The White Fang _NEEDS_ to be dismantled and disbanded. And right now, Yang _NEEDS_ to be with someone her age, who _doesn't_ have a target painted on his back, with an entire organization looking to kill him. " _So why the hell can't I look her in the eye and tell her that?!"_ Grun thinks to himself.

" _ **Is that what you want, Grun**_ **?"** A voice rings in his mind. A voice he hasn't heard in a long time. " _Mother…_ " Grun thinks to himself.

- _FLASHBACK—_

" _Grun?" A younger Grun shakes his head before he looks back to an woman older than him. She wears a black and white outfit, with one long sleeve and a short sleeve. Her large cat ears have three golden piercings, two on one side and one on the other. Her small, peach colored face, framed by short black hair, with bright, piercing amber eyes staring into Grun's, love and concern evident in her expression._

" _Sorry, Mrs. Belladonna," Grun says, "I was lost in thought. What did you say?" Instead of answering, she let's out an exasperated sigh and says, "Grun, we've been over this. You've lived with us for five years now. When are you going to stop calling me 'Mrs. Belladonna?' You know I'd be happy if you just called me Kali." Grun shakes his head and says, "It would be highly improper to call my employer by her first name. I'm a bodyguard, nothing more."_

 _Kali smiles and says, "You're just as stubborn as any of us Belladonnas, you may as well start calling me 'Mom'". She smiles wider seeing the young boys face turn a deep red, doing his best to keep his face a neutral mask, though she can see how excitedly his wolf ears are twitching on top if his head._

" _A-anyway," Grun says, "What had you asked me, ma'am?" Kali giggles at his stubborn ignoring of her teasing and says, "What I had asked, was do you want to join a combat school? You are getting close to the age for entering primary training academies, and if you wanted, we could begin the application process next year?"_

 _Grun shook his head immediately, saying, "No, it would take time away from protecting Blake." Before he can continue though, Kali holds up a hand, stopping him. "Before you start your whole spiel about you 'needing' to be a professional, I want to say this. I didn't ask what Grun the body guard needs to do, I asked what Grun, the almost teenager_ _ **WANTS**_ _to do. You aren't a number, you aren't a robot, and you aren't just an employee. You are a friend to a lot of people, and you are family to us. I've seen the way you watch the Huntsmen on T.V. and how you sneak out to watch the local Huntsmen and Huntresses train. If you don't start school this year, you may never be able to be a Huntsman. If you are happy being nothing else besides a bodyguard for the rest of your life, that's your decision. But I have to ask you this. Is that what you want, Grun?"_

 _-Flashback End-_

Smiling at the memory of one of the few times he did something selfish, he looks back at Yang, drinking in the image of her deep Purple Eyes, her gentle features, coupled with her easygoing smile, he lets himself feel how much he enjoys having her near him, touching him, resting on him. It feels nice, warm, safe. And most importantly, it feels _**right**_. It feels like he found someone he didn't even realize he was searching for. And at that moment he made his decision.

Reaching forward, he places his hand on the back of Yang's neck, relishing the soft warm skin there. Seeing her shiver at the contact, his smile widens before he pulls her towards him, the short squeak of surprise she lets out is quickly cut off by his lips pressing against hers. After a few moments of shock, Yang begins returning the kiss, fervently.

After several moments of heated kisses, neither wanting to be out done by the other, they finally separate. Both are completely flushed and breathless, and sporting matching smiles. The comfortable silence is broken by Yang asking, "So does that mean…?" Grun rolls his eyes but he nods.

Yang smiles even wider before she leans forward and rests her forehead against Grun's, letting out a pleased sigh. "I'm so happy, Grun. You have no idea how much I've wanted this." Grun can't help but to think back on all the messages he has received from Blake, Jaune and Yang herself asking things about him, but doesn't comment on them, saying instead "I think I have some idea."

Yang leans back and sticks her tongue out at him before leaning back forward, resting against his chest. Grun wraps an arm around her back before reaching out with his other and grabbing the hairbrush he had earlier and starts to gently run it through her hair, patiently and meticulously working out all of the knots and tangles in her golden locks. He can't help but notice how she squirms and moans in pleasure at his ministrations, doing his best to ignore how it caused her to press up against him in more intimate ways than she was before. After he finished with her hair she stands up and moves to the nearby mirror, inspecting it with a critical eye. Grun stands up slower, subtly trying to fix the issue that Yang had, he hoped, unintentional caused him with all of her shifting against him.

"Wow," he hears her say, "My hair looks great, Grun. All I need now is to wash it and it would look like new. How'd you get so good at taking care of hair?" Grun chuckles and leans back against the wall before he says, "Blake used to have me take care of her hair when she started growing it out like it is. Mother has always had short hair, and Blake wouldn't let Father near her with any kind of hair care products. He was great at many jobs, but unfortunately beautician was not one of those jobs." Yang can't help but giggle at the image of a younger Blake snubbing her nose at her Dad. "But my hair is entirely different from Blake's. But you still treated like you've treated it all your life."

Grun can't help but sigh and say, "Unfortunately, Blake made the mistake of bragging about my hair care abilities to some of Jaune's sisters during one of our visits, so I was quickly roped into trying out my skills on their hair as well. And if there is one thing the Arc siblings have in spades, it's diversity. Long, short, straight, wavy, curly, there is few types of hair I haven't worked on before."

Yang can't help but giggle even more before saying, "As if I didn't already have enough reason to like you. Now I'm DEFINITELY not letting you get away from me." Yang stops giggling when she sees his smile drop. "What's wrong, Grun?"

Grun sighs quietly before he says, "That's the thing, Yang. I can't stay. My team and I were only stopping by on our way to Menagerie, we still have our mission to carry out." Grun cant help but feel a stab of guilt when he sees how sad Yang looks hearing this.

"B-but, you just got here. We just became a couple. Can't you put it off for a little while?" Grun reaches his hand up and it over the silver spot in his hair before he speaks again. "I want to stay Yang, believe me I do. But we have a small window to make it there to stop the White Fang."

Yang steps closer and takes hold of his hand, nearing desperation before she says, "One day? Can you please, just wait one day? For me?" Grun cant help but feel how badly her arm is shaking, and see the deep rooted fear in her eyes.

"I'll talk to my team. This affects all of us and I wont make a call without asking them first." Happy to feel the trembling lessen hearing this, he reaches up and caresses her cheek before he says, "But I want you to understand something Yang. I am **NOT** and will **NEVER** abandon you, do you understand me? We have both lost things important to us, and I will do everything in my power to make sure I am not the cause of more pain."

Yang can do nothing to stop the tears that start falling from her eyes. "I'll be sure to hold you to that, Grun" Yang says, trying to put on a brave face. "Thank you"

Grun smiles back at her and says, "I'll go speak to my team now. Do you need anything before I go? Or want me to bring you anything?" Yang shakes her head and says, "Thanks, but I think it's time I get out of this room, get some air. I'm gonna grab a quick shower and go talk to Dad and Ruby." Yang stops for a moment and grins wickedly, before saying, "It might be a little tricky washing myself with just one arm. Why don't you join me and…give me a hand?"

Grun feels blood rush to his face, trying and failing to not picture that particular scenario. But he frowns when he hears her start to giggle. "Oh gods, your face was priceless. Oh this is going to be so much fun! I was just teasing Grun, I can was myself. You go on and speak to everyone and tell them I'll be out in a bit, ok Hun?" She leans forward and delivers a quick peck to his lips before slowly sauntering to the bathroom, taking far more time walking away from him then was strictly necessary. After the door clicks shut, Grun shakes his head and turns to the door, muttering to himself. "Are all blondes this bad, or do I just attract the ones that are?"

Walking down the hall way, he enters the living room, finding everyone there, either talking, cuddling or laughing. But all sounds stop when they see him walk in. A tense silence fills the room before Ruby finally says, "S-so, how did it go?" Grun slowly tilts his head back and forth before he smiles gently at her and says, "She's gonna be fine. It'll take time, and patience, but she'll make it through this. As long as she has people who love her with her."

There are several sighs of relief before Grun feels a gust of wind and a small pair of arms wrap around his waist. "Thank you, Grun! Thank you thank you thank you. We've been so worried about Yang, and she wouldn't talk to us, and she would just shut us out, and we didn't know what to do!"

Grun looks down and sees Ruby barely keeping herself from crying. Reaching his hand up he starts to gently pet the top of her head and says, "Nothing to thank me for, Ruby. I didn't do anything but talk to her." Grun can't help but chuckle at her relishing in his petting of her head. 'If she were a dog Faunus, her tail would be wagging right now.' He thinks to himself.

Looking up, he sees both Qrow and Tai standing in front of him. Tai has his hand stuck out, which Grun easily takes with his own. A firm handshake is exchanged as Tai says, "You may not think you did much Grun, but you did something the three of us couldn't. You helped bring our family member out of a funk we thought she's never come back from. So you have my thanks, sincerely."

Grun nods to Tai, still uncomfortable with being thanked, but not wanting to insult the man. Releasing his hand, he sees Qrow with his fist out, causing Grun to smile and bump his own against it. He has been familiar with Qrow's quirks for quite some time and knows he's as uncomfortable with thanks as Grun is, so he happily takes Qrow's attempt at sincerity for what it is.

"Like they said man, we owe you one. Big time. We were almost at our wits end trying to help her, but we couldn't give up."

Grun nods in understanding, saying, "She's family, Qrow. I understand. Nothing is more important than family." Seeing a slight smirk on Qrow face, Grun smiles back. But he becomes worried when he sees Qrow's eyes focus under his face. The smile has left his face and he is staring directly at a spot under his jawline.

"Grun" Qrow growls out, "HOW exactly did you say you 'helped' my niece, again?" Growing even more confused he looks to Tai, seeing him focusing on my as well, though he seems more shocked and sad than angry. His thought is interrupted when he hears Ruby ask, "Hey Grun, what's that spot on your neck?"

Immediately feeling his blood turn to ice, he tries to avoid both of the older men's looks by looking down at Ruby. But her innocence proves to be his undoing when she says, "You didn't have that when you walked in earlier. Did a bug bite you or something?"

Turning to his team, hoping to find some kind of support, he is sorely disappointed. Leere and Macht are both smiling smugly at him, while Blake and Ren are shaking their heads, one smiling at his expense, while the other is looking at him with sympathy in their eyes. Weiss is blushing and seething, quietly muttering to herself. And finally, Blitz and Nora are both lying on the floor, rolling into each other and laughing uncontrollably.

Finally turning back to look at Qrow, he can see that one of his hands has drifted down and is gripping the handle of his weapon. Before he can pull it free, however, they hear giggling coming from behind Grun. Turning towards it, they see Yang standing in the door way, dressed in a casual pair of cargo pants and a loose tank top, her hair pulled back into a simple knotted ponytail. Leaning against the door frame, he hand covering her mouth as she tries to get her laughter under control, she says to everyone.

"Now is that anyway to treat my boyfriend?" Before she can speak any further, she is tackled by a red and black missile. While everybody is distracted by Yang, Grun tries to subtly inch his way towards the door of the cabin. Before he opens the door, however, he feels a couple hands grip his shoulders. Turning, he finds both Macht and Blake holding him in place, both smiling at him.

"Now we cant have you leaving just yet, Boss," Macht says, quickly followed by Blake saying "Yes, I would _love_ to hear how my _dear brother_ started dating my _partner._ " Feeling himself start to swear, he sighs and turns back to face the questions.

- **-CHAPTER END—**

 _ **Hello there, lovelies. Nightengale here. First let me say this. I am so sorry it took me this long to get this new chapter out. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I take medication for depression. Well earlier this year I thought I was doing well enough to be taken off of them. So I talked to my doctor, and I was weaned off of them. It took a while, but I was finally off of them. Then a couple months later, the depression hit me again, harder than it had before. I honestly don't remember what sparked it, but I was down, lower than I had ever been in the past. I lost all motivation in my life; I was struggling to get up and work every day, I was becoming short with my wife and children, I stopped talking to the few friends I have, and writing was the furthest thing from my mind. I was in a bad way, I won't deny it. But my wife was who ultimately pulled me back. She sat down with me, calmly and patiently talked to me, and we agreed I needed to be put back on my meds. So I went and had my prescription refilled, and now I'm back in a better mind set. Now that being said, I can't guarantee that this will mean that I will keep a consistent schedule with my chapters. I work full time, and winter is my busiest time of year because on top of my regular duties, I'm also on the snow plowing crew for the city I work for. So the times I actually have to sit down and think and write are at a premium. But I will do my best to keep this story going, for myself and for the few people who actually seem to enjoy my story. For those who have read, favorited, followed or commented in this story, or any story I wrote in the past I want to say, Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I love each and every one of you. As always, I want to Thank my good friend Nickshephard for beta reading my chapter and helping me edit them. Until next time, this is Nightengale, signing off.**_


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